Photo: Antony Szmierek - Harry Proctor
The lights went down, excitement rippled around the room, the band appeared on stage, and then a pause – where was their frontman? As the atmospherically synthy intro to ‘Chalk’ filled the venue, Antony Szmierek’s unmistakably Mancunian monotone boomed out over the speaker. Then a spotlight picked him out. The crowd turned around and find him dancing around on the balcony at the back of the room, singing down to them like a rave music Rapunzel.
Photo: Antony Szmierek - Harry Proctor
Never one to follow convention, this intro was something Szmierek only settled upon 5 minutes before going on stage, (a tour manager’s worst nightmare), but it was perfect way to immerse his fans into the strange and seismic world of The Heron – the iconic all-seeing all-knowing protagonist of his latest release, ‘Decoding Birdsong’.
Making it back to the stage in a puff of red smoke just in time for the chorus, the crowd erupted in cheers. The mood was set for his biggest ever headline, a 2500 capacity Manchester Academy.
The Heron himself was in attendance of course, waiting patiently for his close up in an illuminated box at the centre of the stage. The real heron from the album cover we hear you ask? Of course it was, this is Antony Szmierek we’re talking about. The king of making you laugh, cry, contemplate and dance your ass off all in the space of a few seconds.
Photo: Robin Parker - Harry Proctor
After performing The Heron’s namesake, arguably one of ‘Decoding Birdsong’s most defining tracks, the singer took a moment to wish Tom Sainsbury, his close friend and long term bass player a happy birthday.
Giving fans a quick break from the slightly more serious and dark world of ‘Decoding Birdsong’, Szmierek bounced around the stage to the silly but symbolic chorus of ‘Yoga Teacher’ from his also highly successful debut album ‘The Service Station at the End of the Universe’, which was released only a year previously.
Emerging from the wings, support act and album collaborator Ellur joined the band for a performance of their track ‘Bookies Favourite’, clutching an armful of flowers. Szmierek, ever the gentleman passed them out among the crowd.
‘Circle of Light’ was a welcome and surprising addition to the set, an old non album track that was a coy nod to those who have stuck around with Szmierek since the early days. The song tells the story of meeting someone at an event and zooming in to a picture to realize you’ve seen them before, at the same event a year ago. The song itself took on its own meaning, the undulating light display and delivery of the line “It’s gonna be a good night ya know”, creating space for these perfectly imperfect chance encounters to happen right there and then, with Szmierek’s own music as the soundtrack.
Photo: Antony Szmierek - Harry Proctor
“If you’ve not started dancing now’s the time, fuck work, fuck your boss., fuck your ex, let’s go!”. Shouted the frontman, barely stopping for breath and keeping the tempo high for the surreal and disco soaked ‘Same Heron’ before dedicating ‘Commune’ to “all the lovers in the room”.
Imogen and The Knife joined them for a truly special rendition of spoken word epic ‘Flight Simulator’, with a visibly overjoyed Szmierek himself declaring: “That’s the best we’ve ever performed it, that’s how it’s supposed to feel.” … then bringing us back down to earth, introducing ‘Dave’s Angling Superstore’ in an almost Phoenix Nights style fashion; “this next one’s about a swingers club.”
‘The First Five Minutes of Magnolia’ saw Antony continue his new elaborate game of hide and seek, this time appearing on the bar, where he crowd surfed all the way back to the stage.
Photo: Antony Szmierek - Harry Proctor
‘Decoding Birdsong’, the album’s title track, had all of the energy and euphoria of a 90s rave. Fans embraced each other and took to their friend’s shoulders, creating a beautiful silhouette against the dancing lights. In unison, much like a flock of birds themselves, they all belted out the tour’s mantra-like catch phrase “one for sorrow, two for love”, a play on the old rhyme about magpies.
A chorus of birdsongs played out of the speaker, signaling an encore-ish break in the set. A much more artistic and less cringe way than waiting for the crowd to do the whole ‘one more song’ chant in our opinion.
Keeping the mellow, contemplative mood, the band reappeared to play ‘Aussie Gold Hunters’. With Antony addressing the audience in a moment of beautiful vulnerability he shared: “I wrote this album at the end of last year, when I was struggling with my mental health and feeling lonely. There’s a lot of being on your own in this job. But I’m happy to report I’m feeling much better.”, which was met with a swathe of supportive cheers and claps.
Photo: Antony Szmierek - Harry Proctor
This feeling of togetherness made the now-traditional hugs and ‘Happy New Year’ wishes all the more poignant for ‘The Words to Auld Lang Syne’. But of course there was only one way to end the biggest party of the year, with the musical confetti that is ‘Rafters’.
As the whole room bounced to the beat, the penultimate night of the Decoding Birdsong tour felt like a true victory lap for the hometown hero. Despite the smoke machines and flashing lights, his unbridled excitement was hiding in plain sight, with Szmierek cheering and whooping almost as much as the crowd themselves as the show came to a close.
Photo: Antony Szmierek - Harry Proctor
This new era marks Antony Szmierek’s migration from underground hero to leader of the flock. To the untrained eye, his somewhat rapid ascent to popularity may seem like a simple stroke of luck, but we can assure you it’s the result of years of hard work, and grabbing every opportunity with both hands.
Since arriving on the scene post-pandemic, he’s hardly stopped to ‘catch a fish’, a real testament to his Northern working-class work ethic – and how fucking hard it is to break this industry- making the success of this tour even more of a well-deserved triumph.
His own words on the night really showed how much it all meant to a local lad from Hyde: “If I can give you any advice, it’s be sincere. There’s not a shred of irony on this stage. We went to a shit school. We didn’t do Drama, we didn’t do Music. If you wonna write, if you wonna paint, if you wonna be in a band, you can do it.”
Photo: Antony Szmierek - Harry Proctor
To keep up to date with Antony Szmierek head to : Antony Szmierek | Official Website
Watch our interview with Antony Szmierek at last year’s Leeds Festival here.