Cult gig of the month - November: The Bunny Suit at Café Blah, Withington, Manchester.

North West post-punk four piece The Bunny Suit are gearing up for support slots on Embrace’s upcoming 30th anniversary UK tour. But before they do, they're generously putting on a free gig at Manchester's Café Blah as a warm-up before they set off on the road. Cult Manchester's Jools Taylor (editor of @the_setlist24) chats to the band - George Wainwright (vocals/guitar), James Hyland (vocals/bass), Connor Walsh (lead guitar) and Alex Autiero (drums) - who’ve answered the questions collectively. Democracy in action! Images by Kenz Edwards.

Cult Manchester: Is there a city/venue you're looking forward to playing the most on the Embrace tour?

The Bunny Suit: We’re most excited to perform at Manchester Academy. We all met at university in Manchester and formed the band up here too, so it’s going to feel really special for us to see so many familiar faces in the crowd. We used to drive past the Academy on the bus on the way to university, so it feels really surreal that we’ve now been given the opportunity to perform there. London Roundhouse is another venue that we’re all really excited to visit.

CM: You've made this gig at Café Blah a free show - is it important to you that musicians do as much as they can to make live music accessible?

TBS: We’re very firmly of the belief that the grassroots music industry shouldn’t be operating on a pay-to-win basis. We aim to keep our self-promoted gigs affordable, free when possible, so that more of our friends are able to afford to come and support us. We have a duty to share the feeling that we get from creating music with our peers, and charging  people £15 per ticket won’t encourage them to come to our gigs. It’s so important to us to keep our gigs accessible to all, not just those who can afford an inflated entry on the door.

CM: You've got three songs out on Spotify at the moment, which one is your favourite to perform?

TBS: ‘Right on Time’, our latest single, has quickly become a song that we all really enjoy playing live. It’s changed so much since we first performed it to an audience, which is a real testament to our growth and chemistry as a band. It’s a song that pushes our individual boundaries too, and we think it best represents the progression and the refinement of our sound.

CM: Are there any unreleased tunes that the crowd should listen out for at any of the upcoming gigs?

TBS: Playing unreleased songs at our gigs is a real privilege for us, because it gives us the opportunity to gauge audience reaction in real time. We have a song called ‘No Sleep (Without You)’ which we’ve always felt very confident performing, it’s lightning in a bottle for us and sits very nicely towards the end of our set. We have another song called ‘Can’t Stay’ which is full of energy, and reveals a darker, more raw sound which we’re starting to lean towards. We also pull heavily from shoegaze influences, and we’re ending our set with a song called 'Postcard'. It’s a proper Phil Spector-indebted wall of noise ordeal.

CM: You played Café Blah back in February - what was it about that gig that made you want to  come back?

TBS: Café Blah is a very special venue for ourselves and lots of other grassroots bands from South Manchester. It has such a unique interior: red velvet curtains and black and white chessboard tiles on the floor. Our bassist is a fan of David Lynch, and there’s something about Blah that reminds him of the Black Lodge from Twin Peaks. It’s very intimate, and you end up playing on eye level with the audience rather than being separated by a heightened stage.

Our headline gig there in February was one of our favourites. Playing in front of a sold out crowd full of friends and family made it a very memorable night for us, and we’re really looking forward to coming back to Blah in November. It’s the perfect way to warm up for our tour with Embrace.

Go and reserve yourself a spot at The Bunny Suits' free headline gig at Café Blah, 445 Wilmslow Road, Withington, Manchester on 10 November here.

And while you're waiting for the show, go listen to the song they’re most enjoying playing live at the moment, their latest single 'Right on Time’ .