Jinjer, Unprocessed, Textures – LIVE
Jinjer, Unprocessed, Textures
O2 Ritz, Manchester
29/01/2026
Live Review by Oli Gonzalez
Another sold out January show on a week night. Who said January was the quietest month of the year? Maybe the fact that this was sold out was owing to the star studded line up and return to the island from the Ukrainian powerhouse that is Jinjer! Their absence was clearly felt and reflected in the ticket sales, spelling freedom for many who had endured the entirety of January lurking in a Christmas hangover, and could finally let rip after that sweet-sweet pay day! The support acts were solid too, with the first coming to us from across the north sea from The Netherlands…
Textures
Perhaps an unusual choice to open the evening given their size, both in stature and given that they are a sextet and looked crammed in on that stage with the backline for the other bands taking up valuable space. Nonetheless, they proceeded with their set list that leaned heavily on tracks from their album that had dropped 6 days prior; “Genotype”. It seemed like the Manchester crowd hadn’t had time to get familiar with them as it felt like a quieter than expected reception. Though maybe they were just admiring a technically proficient set, which really did sound solid and ridiculously tight once some earlier issues with the bass were sorted. A respectable performance and strong opening for the evening.
https://www.facebook.com/textures
Unprocessed
I’ll be honest; after listening to them a few times prior to the show, I just didn’t understand Unprocessed. Maybe seeing them in the flesh would make more sense. Seeing the band’s guitarists both armed with 8 string guitars meant that you knew things were about to get heavy! Given the ‘ampless’ set up, this made for a clean sound that would have been a dream for the sound engineers tonight. A clean sound that could weave from intricate and detailed right through to monstrous and crushing! So crushing that this certainly incited some activity in the crowd. When a circle pit was called for, the result was some kind of weird hybrid between that and a wall of death…a circle of death, a wall of circles? In either case, this was an excellent introduction to a young band who clearly know their sound well and can connect with a crowd. Now I understand them!
https://www.facebook.com/Unprocessedofficial
Jinjer
“How many crowd surfers do you reckon we’ll see?” I asked a friend. We made our predictions and shortly after the lights went down for the third time tonight before the Ritz was illuminated by the LEDs from Jinjer’s elaborate stage props. Now, it was busy. Crammed. There’s sold out, and then there’s SOLD OUT. Within seconds of the first note, the pits had erupted and you were quickly becoming acquainted with the person stood next to you as the surge of the crowd turned this into a game of human dodgems! It was fun though! Having to dodge the barrage of crowd surfers not so fun though (though if you’re at the barrier, this is the price you pay)! What else would you do on a Thursday night? Another band with a ridiculously tight and polished sound, the sound engineers had earned their wages tonight!
Vocalist Tatiana was an absolute force, moving effortlessly between warm and soulful cleans to the most demonic guttural roars! Barely saying anything to the crowd, she didn’t really need to. They were engaged enough with many around me singing out loud to hits like ‘Teacher Teacher’, and ‘Vortex’. Wanting to make a smooth exit, I swam through the sea of bodies to make my way to the exit just in time for the final song. They hadn’t played it yet. They had to. Surely. They did. ‘Pisces’! Arguably the song that made them most famous, being at the back of the venue now gave me a full scope for just how crammed the venue was! I could also see the sheer quantity of crowd surfers sailing through the air towards the stage, oddly graceful like shopping bags getting caught in the wind. It was an awesome sight. A solid end to a much welcomed returned for a band admired in the UK and the world over.
https://www.facebook.com/JinjerOfficial
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