Paleface Swiss, StaticDress, and Stick To Your Guns played Manchester Academy on 15th January 2026.
The energy of the audience is ridiculously high tonight, both outside and inside Manchester Academy. As well as Paleface Swiss, we also have two well-respected but lesser-known bands on the bill tonight, and the crowd is almost as excited for them as they are for the headline act.
Stick To Your Guns
Taking the stage first was Stick To Your Guns. STYG are a melodic hardcore band hailing all the way from California. They have been around since 2003, generally keeping the same sound, though definitely leaning more into clean vocals and almost pop-punk-like melodies while still staying true to their fat riffs and catchy two-step sections.
STYG stormed the stage, opening with their super heavy song ‘Diamond.’ Their guitarist, Josh James, who I noticed was wearing a very old and tattered Earth Crisis T-shirt, and bassist Andrew Rose set the tone immediately. Rose must’ve had ants in his pants because I didn’t see him stand still once the entire set. Both guitarists started going side to side on stage, and the vocalist began hyping up the crowd, almost commanding them, screaming “I need some wild shit tonight.”
They immediately segued into their classic ‘What Choice Did You Give Us,’ a song off their 2015 record Disobedient, which had the entire crowd screaming the lyrics by the time the first bridge hit. Stick To Your Guns showed an incredible amount of gratitude, not just toward the crowd but toward Paleface Swiss too. Frontman Jesse Barnette said, “For some reason our dead band means something to the boys in Paleface, so we just want to say thank you to them from the bottom of our hearts for bringing us on this tour, for us to play in front of so many new people in places we haven’t been to in a very long time.”
Static Dress
Up next were Static Dress, a local band from “40 minutes up the road,” as vocalist Oli Appleyard put it. Static Dress are a Leeds post-hardcore band that started in 2018 and are known for their high energy and heavy breakdowns. Sadly, there were no photographers allowed during their set, but the second Static Dress stepped on stage, they were met with a massive reaction from the crowd. The whole room went absolutely crazy for these guys, and you could see they were feeding off that energy.
They came on playing ‘Clean’ and quickly shifted into ‘Vague.’ The whole set was relentless, with constant movement and obvious enjoyment from the band. They debuted a brand new song called ‘Human Props’ and told the crowd, “We all came here for a good time and to enjoy ourselves, so I want you to have as much fun as you possibly can, Manchester!”
The new song hit really hard: piercing screams and drop-tuned guitars, what more could you need? Oli really stood out, talking a lot more with the crowd and clearly being there for the fans, though guitarist Vincent Weight is an absolute beast in his own right. Full of absolutely relentless energy, with calls heeded for circle pits and screams from the crowd loud enough you would think they were the headliners, Static Dress owned the stage for the short time they were on it.
Paleface Swiss
Up next: Switzerland’s heaviest music export, Paleface Swiss. After their UK tour this time last year and an absolutely barn-storming set at last summer’s Bloodstock festival, Paleface seem genuinely amazed to be headlining for almost 2,000 people. Having been on the scene since 2017, their rise has been a slow burn followed by a huge push upwards as their excellent album releases have been eaten up by a broad range of the metal community. This was evident from the varied crowd here tonight, from older bearded metallers to hardcore kids and white-faced goth girls.
Coming out to ‘Cursed One,’ the crowd erupted with an energy that eclipsed what had been felt earlier in the night. Crowd surfers immediately flew over the barrier, and a mosh pit so big you could feel it from the very side of the venue opened up. They then went straight into ‘Hatred,’ which had the crowd screaming every word.
Paleface are one of those bands who clearly love their fans. They constantly look like they’re so happy they’re about to cry, and they always have a blast on stage. After ‘Hatred,’ vocalist Zelli talked about how their first ever show outside of Switzerland was at a venue called Rebellion in Manchester, and how their first headline show was at Satan’s Hollow, where they played to “about two and a half people.” This monologue was genuinely wholesome, explaining that some of his favourite memories of being in Paleface are actually in Manchester. Sometimes when bands talk about how much a city means to them it can feel recycled, but this was an exception. He genuinely seemed blown away by how far they’d come and how massive the crowd was.
They then played ‘Nail to the Tooth,’ with Zelli running the crowd through the chant: “The people are FUCKED, and their lives are FUCKED,” which they were only too happy to scream back at him. All night, the crowd was eating out of Zelli’s hand. For such a young band they are exceptional on stage, and every request for “more violence” or “more movement” was met perfectly.
After playing an older song for the beatdown and hardcore kids, the first of two massive walls of death broke out. This crowd is truly insane. During ‘Please Let Me Sleep,’ Zelli convinces everyone in the venue to get down on the floor for a massive group jump-around when the breakdown hits, and it’s an amazing moment to witness.
Zelli then took a moment to talk about Billie Eilish (of all people), saying, “I’m a massive fan of her music, and the fact I’m playing on the same stage she’s played on is actually crazy to me right now.” And who would’ve thought Paleface Swiss would ever bring out an acoustic guitar? Towards the end of the set, they brought out stools and acoustic guitars plus the guitarist of Static Dress to perform ‘River of Sorrows.’ It was a beautiful moment where Zelli let the crowd sing, while you could clearly see how proud and happy he was. This was a lovely moment in an intensely heavy gig and it was well received by the crowd.
Shortly after, they brought out all of Stick To Your Guns to help with their collaborative song ‘Instrument of War.’ Finally, after about three seconds of interlude, they closed with their biggest hit, ‘Please End Me.’ Hearing it live again was unreal. Zelli’s vocals have never sounded dirtier, and everyone loved every second of it. The entire place was heaving, bodies flying everywhere, sweat literally running down the walls before they disappear and we are unceremoniously flung out into the frosty Manchester air, happy and very much looking forward to the next time Paleface Swiss visit our shores in the hopefully not-too-distant future.
