Review: Andrew W.K. at The Academy, Manchester

‘IT’S time to party!’ bellows the almighty Andrew W.K. on tonight’s eponymous show opener. He almost didn’t need to say any more.

For a decade now, many have struggled to take Andrew W.K. seriously. This year is the 10-year anniversary of his classic hard-rock debut I Get Wet – an album largely concerned with decadence, drinking, dancing and partying hard. To mark the occasion he’ll be playing the album in its entirety and in order.

Anyone who wasted their time over-thinking what Andrew W.K. ‘was all about’ or if he’s taking the mick really needs to be here to realise one thing – it really doesn’t matter.

No one is here to stroke their chins or be moved to tears – people are here to lose their minds. The agenda is clear just from a few of the songs in tonight’s set-list: Party Hard, Take It Off, Party Til You Puke, Fun Night and Don’t Stop Living In The Red.

I lose count of the amount of people in the army of believers all clad in white t-shirts and white jeans, emulating his iconic look – and partying just as hard.

The entire night is just one pure testosterone-fuelled celebration at break-neck speed.

After coming out for an encore of the brutal We Want Fun, Andrew invites the entire audience on stage. As I stared over the sea of crowd-surfers’ flailing limbs and airborne pints of God-knows-what, I realised that nothing else really matters when you’re having this much fun.

In these dark and difficult days we need more people like Andrew W.K. to stand up, rock out and deliver one simple message: when times are hard, just party harder.

By Andrew Trendell