Rolo Tomassi review, Deaf Institute, Manchester: Band are on typically ambitious form

Frontwoman Eva Spence has always switched between saccharine singing and scintillating screaming on record, but that push-and-pull has never quite been as prominent on stage as it is now

(Redferns)

​Rolo Tomassi have always had the air of a band locked in an arms race with their own back catalogue.

A lot of bands talk the talk when it comes to the idea of not retracing their steps but this Sheffield outfit have repeatedly put their money where their mouth is, from record to record. Their 2008 debut, Hysterics, was produced by dance giant Diplo.

Their breakthrough second, Cosmology, was an exercise in tonal measure. Astraea, their third full-length, set synths against punishing guitars. By the time they made it to album number four, they’d ushered a string section into the mix, and yet by the end of Grievances, you could already hear the group chomping at the bit to move onto the next concept, to indulge their latest creative whim.

Accordingly, last month’s Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It sees them on typically ambitious form, this time bringing balance to the fore by setting their own hellish brand of post-hardcore (if you can even call it that - it’s all stormy guitars and demonic vocals from Eva Spence) against melodic guitars and a generally airy sonic palette.

Spence has always switched between saccharine singing and scintillating screaming on record, but that push-and-pull has never quite been as prominent on stage as it is now that so many Time Will Die cuts are in the live mix; tonight, "Aftermath" serves as a relatively gentle opening, but thereafter, it’s a chaotic blend of choice tracks from the new album and Grievances.

This is Rolo Tomassi’s first show at The Deaf Institute - one of Spence’s favourite venues, she tells the crowd - for over five years, and it wasn’t this packed out last time around. The floor is heaving and a rare song from Astraea - there’s nothing from Hysterics or Cosmology tonight - sets the tempo early on; "Ex Luna Scientia" inspires pockets of moshing that remain for the rest of the set, and it’s therefore not too much of a surprise when Spence’s brother James, the only other original member of the band, emerges from behind his keyboard rig to scale the venue’s balcony and dive into the audience. “I lost my step and my mic. How cool was that?” was his self-effacing review of the situation.

You get the impression that this is as pleased as the band have ever been to be on the road, and not just because they’ve been having fun introducing the support, New York’s Cryptodira, to Wetherspoons up and down the country - news which inspires an unlikely crowd chant in praise of the pub chain. They’ve sold out most of this tour, they’ve met with universal praise for Time Will Die, and there’s now a sense that people are beginning to gravitate towards them because they refuse to adhere to pre-set genre boundaries, where once they might have scared listeners off for that reason. Long may it continue.