DEAF Institute hosted Tourist on Tuesday night (May 10), Quays News entertainment reporter Misha Solanki went along…

Doors for the gig opened at seven and from experience of other gigs, the turn out seemed pretty disappointing. The 300 capacity room started off pretty much empty during XO (the opening DJ) act.

He walked into the venue along with the other gig goers and until he got up on the stage and started playing his music, it wasn’t entirely obvious who he was.

XO started off well, playing less mainstream tracks with a chilled house vibe and seemed to be enjoying himself, grooving along in his Adidas hoodie. But for most of his set the crowd was limited to about 40 people, with more people slowly making their way in through his 40-minute set.

During the opening DJ set, most people seemed to be pre occupied with the bar rather than with the actual music that was being played.

XO is nothing to keep your eye on, he seems to be a newbie in the DJ world with his lack of experience showing him up at times, with a look of ‘oh my god’ on his face on a few occasions when something happened that he wasn’t expecting.

To his credit, he did get better further onto his set, and once the venue was reaching its capacity he switched to more upbeat house to get the crowd moving and ready for Tourist.

Just like his unambiguous entrance, his exit followed the same suit. He started to remove his gear, gave a brief wave to the audience and left.

Just before Tourist came on, all the lights in the venue were completely turned off, and this just sent the crowd wild.

Tourist came on bang on 9pm, which is a rarity when it comes to most gigs. But what was strange was the fact that as soon he came out to his adoring, cheering fans he didn’t seem to acknowledge any of them, until 10 minutes into his set.

He came out to a lit background but no other lighting meant he was just a silhouette for the first track, before he stepped into the light to greet the crowd.

“Hey Manchester!” were the first words to come out of his mouth and it was slightly anti climatic. The whole hour and 15-minute show consisted of him going through his set list with short breaks to speak to the audience.

The whole show seemed to be based around the music and lighting rather than Tourist himself, he constantly stayed a silhouette in the shadows with the intense lighting blinding all the concert goers.

The lights seemed to be a big part of the show, it almost seemed like it was just as important as the music itself. The changing of the light sequence seemed to signal that the current song was coming to an end and he was changing over to another track.

The whole vibe of the night had a very techno-house feel, with a mix of tracks from his latest album ‘U’ and his past two EPs ‘Patterns’ and ‘Tonight’.

The crowd seemed to know most of the tracks yet when a few certain songs came on and the beat dropped in tracks like ‘Together’ and ‘My Love’ they went absolutely crazy, with the whole place shaking.

The dance floor erupted in moves and the bass was enough to shake your rib cage.

The short set seemed to fly by with everyone dancing and enjoying themselves, but the night overall seemed

Tourist was clearly enjoying himself on stage, jumping along to the beat but the reduced conversation with the crowd made it feel more like a clubbing night out than an intimate gig.

The lighting in the background made the whole night; to sit and watch these amazing flashing sequences and catch glimpses of the audience enjoying themselves was the best part of the night, more than the music itself.

By Misha Solanki
@misha_solanks

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