As It Is, Running With Lions, Nightlife, Miss Vincent, Washington Reed 19/02/201 at FAC251 Manchester

So I didn't even know that they put on gigs at Factory until this gig cropped up and it is in fact a great little venue to have gigs at! Most of the crowd in the venue were in their teens all waiting for YouTube sensation Patty Walters to take the stage with As It Is. The nice thing about young crowds is that they support everybody, they appreciate everyone coming on to the stage and are very easily enthused.
First band of the evening were Washington Reed, a two piece blues band local to Manchester and it was a beautiful way to open up the evening. They were refreshing and talented and I very much hope to see some more of them in the future, as an avid rock and roll fan blues was an amazing thing to hear.
(If anyone has any information on the second band then please hit me up! Can't find them online or anything.)
Third up were four piece punk rock band Miss Vincent from the South, the most energetic performance of the evening with massive crowd interaction. Lead singer and guitarist Alex running through the crowd, making people feel as uncomfortable as he could and sure enough the crowd did not forget them due to the attention they received after their performance. A tight set with no glitches and possibly a little bit too far down the bill for that kind of performance.
Next up were Nightlife another refreshing rock band with interesting experimental sections in their music; vocalist Paul struggling through losing his voice (too much partying the night before) but quite frankly sounded amazing. Highly energetic and professional performers it was a privilege to watch them.
The second to last act were another local band Running With Lions, female fronted rock band with a big voice. Very shy on stage for being a main support act but they definitely fit with the crowd that As It Is had pulled in. The final act As It Is were the band that everyone was waiting for, playing a well rehearsed and powerful set that excited the crowd. They may have jumped on the bandwagon with what is popular music to teenagers these days but it definitely works; all night the band were inundated with people wanting photographs and buying merchandise.
It felt like a long night, it's been a while since I have been to a gig so early and with such a full line up but there was a great variety of music and it was amazing to see such a young crowd appreciating so much music and staying entertained the whole night. The rest of us get irritated with kids around but really, they're the ones giving the most support, showing appreciation and buying the merchandise so the rest of us should probably give them less stick. Also with 14+ gigs you have to get ID'd at the bar so it feels quite nice too.
Go and check out all of the links, photographs and videos for this gig (they're only iPhone images but it's better than nothing) and hit them up on Facebook etc.