Live Gig Review
Katie and the Bad Sign
Night and Day Cafe, Manchester
27th March 2025
With the release of their acclaimed (at least by us here at Screaming Riffs) debut album “Revolution” getting ever closer, it already feels like 2025 could be Katie and the Bad Sign’s year. But with electrifying performances like the one we witness tonight at Manchester’s Night and Day café, that feeling seems like more of a dead certainty.
For in a live situation Katie and her band are simply next level. Take everything you’ve seen and heard in recorded form and turn it up to eleven; emotion, musicianship and power are all enhanced and magnified to an amazing degree. It’s that rare thing, a live performance that does not just match but actually exceeds the studio versions. As you would expect, Katie O’Malley’s vocals are front and centre, stunning in their purity and tone and their ability to transport you elsewhere, but now with added richness and depth that the organic nature of a live performance brings to the fore.
But if Katie’s vocals are unsurprisingly superb, The Bad Sign are a revelation. A voice like Katie’s needs an exceptional band to match and complement it and the Bad Sign fulfil that brief and then some. With two talented guitarists trading tasty riffs and gloriously melodic solos, its intoxicating stuff, with them stood side by side during Gaslighter throwing out inspired and smoothly cool guitar lines and a memorable solo with impressive ease. And if the stage configuration means that the rhythm section is largely hidden from view – at least from my vantage point – they certainly make their presence felt, the backbone of the band playing with groove and panache.
Stood between the guitarists, Katie is not just a fantastic singer, but a charming and engaging leader, bantering with the crowd between songs with an openness and honesty that endears her to the already on-side crowd. She’s constantly in motion, like she feels the music within her and can’t help but move to its beat and pulse, tambourine in hand, a musical force of nature.
As you would expect, its’ all about the new tracks from “Revolution” getting an airing, each one a soon to be classic, standing up stronger and more muscular in the live setting.
And whilst Wolf at the Door may be rockier than ever, and Shake Me Down bluesier and groovier, it is The River that has the hairs on your arms standing up. Evidently coming from a wellspring of emotion that Katie taps into when she performs this number, there’s a vulnerability to it, a pain that is tangible and achingly real. It’s a beautiful, profound song performed flawlessly and in such an emotive way that it can’t fail to connect with everyone who has the privilege to be present tonight.
Voodoo brings the energy up again with its hypnotic drum pattern, mesmerising bass line and jangling riff and whilst this is a personal favourite, you could really pick out any of tonight’s songs for particular mention, such is the embarrassment of riches contained within “Revolution”. Throw in an impassioned Heartless Woman (which is released a matter of hours after this very performance) and an encore of Free’s Alright Now and you have a fantastically rounded set delivered by a band whose upward trajectory cannot be denied.
So do yourself a favour, grab a copy of “Revolution” then go out and see Katie and the Bad Sign the next time they’re playing anywhere near you. Cos if you don’t, you’ll only regret it and wish you’d seen them at the start before they go on to play bigger and bigger stages which can surely be the only possible outcome for this wonderfully impressive band…and to think, this is just the beginning….
