If I was feeling lazy, I could sum up the Man/Woman/Chainsaw gig at Gorilla by simply typing ‘wow.’ I am, actually, feeling quite lazy, but the performance I saw on Tuesday evening was so good, so energising, that I just need to close my eyes for a few seconds and remember it and I should be good to go. Okay. Done. It’s going to be hard not to just spend the next 600 words typing superlatives, so I’ll just get some of them out of the way early doors: this show was exciting, outstanding, mind-blowing, life-affirming, and pretty fucking good really if I do say so myself.
I’ve been hugely enjoying Cannonball since its release, and you’ll be able to hear me speaking about it on the Picky Bastards podcast some time in the next few days. I think it is a creative, gloriously chaotic, and really intriguing debut album that fully justifies the hype the band have been receiving (if anything, it deserves even more hype). So I went to the gig with high expectations already, but almost as soon as they came on stage, dancing along to D.A.R.E by Gorillaz, my expectations were raised. There was something in the confident swagger with which they announced themselves that made me feel they were about to do something truly special.
Launching into album opener ‘Only Girl’ straight away was the perfect way for them to show exactly what they do. So many of their best moments on record come with the combination of beautiful violin bouncing off aggressive percussion and guitars, and this song is a prime example. On stage, the energy that each member gave to the performance was infectious and you could feel it throughout the audience. Countering the stunning, almost sweet vocals of Vera Leppanen on the opener with the more aggressive growl of Billy Ward on the second song, ‘The Thing’, was almost a perfect piece of setlisting, giving us a demonstration of the extremes that make this band so compelling.
Shifting to ‘Canyons’ next meant we were treated to one of the band’s standout songs early doors, the live version increasing the intense emotional build in the single. Throughout the rest of the set, the band continued to demonstrate the exact qualities that make them feel so unique and interesting. Often, one song can sound like a totally different band to the next one, but somehow they make them all fit together in a way that is really interesting. The voices should contrast, but they bring the best out of each other. The instruments feel like they are in competition at times, fighting for attention, but never to the detriment of the songs. Tracks like ‘Still Angry’, ‘Get Up and Dance’, ‘Goddamn, Lizard Man!’, ‘Flick of the Wrist’, and ‘Lighter’ all bring different qualities and show different sides of the band, but all light up the stage to the same degree.
It was kind of inevitable that ‘Nosedive’ would end the show. Their best song, arguably the best song of 2026 so far, and the absolute epitome of what this band is about. The song builds beautifully, melds vocal performances that shouldn’t work but do, and layers the emotional impact as the song grows and grows. Watching the band perform it, it was clear how much joy it brings them and that was an absolutely infectious thing to see. An incredible end to an incredible show.
As a 42-year-old man, I really hope this doesn’t come across as patronising, but the thing that kept amazing me throughout the show was just how young Man/Woman/Chainsaw are. Pretty much every band is younger than me now, but to see a group of musicians in their early 20s be so in command of their music, and I mean everything from their instruments, to their sound, their performance, and the way they build these intricate and fascinating songs, was really impressive and joyful. A special mention from me goes to Clio Starwood on violin, too. While the violin feels integral to the album, watching them play on stage it felt like the glue that kept them together and I have never seen anyone perform a string instrument with that much enthusiasm in my life. This was a show that cemented them as the most exciting band in the UK for me right now. If they are this good at this age, while touring their debut album, I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Words by Fran Slater
