THE CAT EMPIRE
The Ritz, Manchester

THEY call themselves a party band whose music is just for dancing.

And The Cat Empire certainly brought a party atmosphere to The Ritz, Manchester, last week with their genre-busting, throw your hands in the air and jump up and down tunes.

The current tour is in support of the multi-platinum collective’s fifth studio album Steal The Light, which features the band’s styles of Latin, jazz, soul, reggae, gypsy, funk and more.

The set kicked off with the album’s title track before the audience was treated to solos from each of the talented musicians, including bongo, trombone and keyboard.

One minute you feel like you are at a carnival, the next at a club complete with DJs scratching on the decks before breaking back out into the sounds of trumpets.

The group, from Melbourne, had the crowd eating out of the palms of their musical hands as they sang and swayed along to Like a Drum and made the most of the venue’s sprung dancefloor during Prophets In The Sky.

Harry James Angus, one of the band’s lead vocalists, was in fine voice throughout the set of almost two hours which also featured other hightlights including Sly.

They slowed things down with The Lost Song but, for the most part, the tunes were uptempo and reminiscent of a beach party or summer fiesta with the ska-inspired Still Young whipping the crowd into a frenzy at The Ritz, which seemed to end up as hot as an Australian summer.

The band left the stage but returned with an encore which included fan-favourite Chariot and then sweet ballad All Night Loud, which features the lyrics, ‘So thank you my dear friends and that’s goodnight’.

Support for the evening was from Flap!, another Melbourne band which cranks out up-tempo songs, turning ordinary shoes into dancing ones.