Manchester Orchestra are currently on tour, celebrating the 10th anniversary of their album Cope. The celebration recently rolled into the DMV to The Fillmore Silver Spring. This was one of those amazing times where one of my kids was into the band and decided to go to the show, as well. You can’t ask for a better night than that!

On Sept. 7 at The Fillmore Silver Spring, the show began with the opening act, Militarie Gun, from Los Angeles. They are a high-energy rock band with definite punk and hardcore influences. They have a history with Manchester Orchestra, as the band collaborated with them on their song “My Friends Are Having A Hard Time” earlier this year.

After the break between bands, Manchester Orchestra took the stage in almost complete darkness. For this tour they are playing their 2014 album Cope in its entirety and in album order. The current lineup of the band includes founding member and principal songwriter Andy Hull on vocals and rhythm guitar, Robert McDowell on lead guitar and keyboards, Tim Very on drums, and Andy Prince on bass. Brooks Tipton is also on the tour, helping out on keyboards.

Manchester Orchestra’s set opened with “Top Notch.” It’s pretty heavy song, musically. Andy’s voice was a great contrast, as it is similar to Brian Aubert’s from Silversun Pickups. They kept the lighting pretty dark and moody for the first couple of songs, with bursts of white and colored strobes. It fit the music well and set the mood for the show.

Crowd interaction with the band was great. Andy told some stories about the music and the album and everything seemed normal. That was until the song “The Ocean” started. That was when “The Argument” started. The band kicked the song off and a just a few seconds into it, Andy Hull stopped everyone. He told Andy Prince that his bass was out of tune. Mr. Prince begged to differ and insisted it was Mr. Hull who was out of tune. The argument lasted a good minute or more before Andy Hull invited Andy Prince to go through their tunings, string by string, which they did. The bass was quickly re-tuned.

Watch Manchester Orchestra play “The Ocean” live at The Earl via YouTube:

That seemed to get the massive crowd even more into the show. They would call out to the band as if trying to start a conversation. Andy Hull would engage from time to time, but at one point mentioned that he couldn’t understand what was being shouted. He then turned to Tim Very and said “please hurry up and count off the next song!”

A couple of songs after “The Ocean” came “All That I Really Wanted.” The band shifted gears a little and played the acoustic version from Cope’s companion album, “Hope.” There was also a sweet reference to Andy Hull’s son, River, when they began the song Cope with a short bit of their song “The River.”

After they finished the album they left the stage but returned quickly for their encore set. In another nod to his kids, the band played “The Maze,” a song written for Andy Hull’s daughter.

I wanted to see this show because my own daughter got me into Manchester Orchestra. Being able to experience her watching her favorite band play live was one of the highlights of my life. She was brought to tears during the show, and I’ll be honest — that put a lump in my throat. That would be reason enough for me to follow this band around on tour. But that fact that they put on a great show was the icing on the cake. I will definitely have to catch them each time they come to the area. Hopefully I can continue to make it a family event, much like Manchester Orchestra has done with their music.

Setlist

• Top Notch
• Choose You
• Girl Harbor
• The Mansion
• The Ocean
• Every Stone
• All That I Really Wanted (acoustic)
• Trees
• Indentions
• I Can Feel Your Pain (intro)/See It Again
• The River (intro)/Cope
• The Silence

Encore

• The Maze
• The Gold
• Bed Head
• Shake It Out

Here are some more photos of Manchester Orchestra performing at The Fillmore Silver Spring on Sept. 7, 2024. All pictures copyright and courtesy of Marc Shea.