Water Damage, Smote @ The White Hotel, Manchester – 02/09/2025

It had to happen eventually, didn’t it? Water Damage, finally bringing their blustery commotion to the U.K. While these parts had seemingly rejected the Austin, Texas collective for long enough, finally the flood gates have opened for the always-evolving hell-raisers to dispense a brand of hypnotic, repetitious noise that only they know how.

Fresh from their appearance at Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival, Water Damage’s first U.K. tour already feels like a victory lap. Not least because of band’s excellent body of work which has boasted four full-length releases in as many years (and that’s not including their recent Le Guess Who? live release and Longform Editions recording), but from the support acts, too – the likes of Sun 13 regulars, Charlie Butler and Dragged Up, getting in on the act. You love to see it.

Smote are another welcomed into the Water Damage broad church, tonight flanking the band in Manchester where The White Hotel is home to this imminent racket. Lankum’s Ian Lynch is a surprise edition to the north east band’s line-up, too, and as Smote ready the release of their fifth long-player, Songs from the Free House, their set feels somewhat of a pivot.

The Daniel Foggin-led six-piece essentially do a Water Damage on Water Damage, with a series of long-form psych-infused instrumental assaults that, at times, are reminiscent of current era-Swans. It’s a surprise and a good one for the audience, who have The White Hotel filled to the gills. Again, you love to see it.

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It’s not long before Water Damage follow in what is yet another manifestation of the band’s live make-up. Tonight, a vastly different proposition from their heroic performances at last year’s Le Guss Who?, with the likes of Travis Austin and Greg Piwonka sitting this one out; George Dishner and Danielle Hills are not, though, and alongside tour mainstays Nate Cross, Thor Harris and Mauri Maurice as well as tonight’s gun for hire in Lynch, the band launch into Instruments’ opening cut, Reel 28.

The stage is all strobe and smoke rendering it just about pitch black in what feels more like a setting to an Autechre show. Whether by design, who knows, but one thing’s for sure: the sonics eclipse all else. Cross’ bass line, anchoring the piece from start to finish, which begins with a narcotic echo that sounds more like the spirit of Jimi Hendrix calling. It’s just what Water Damage do, as new voices constantly drift in and out whereby no one set is the same. Ultimately, it illuminates the very idea of what it is to be Water Damage.

And tonight’s blazing avatar stretches Reel 28 out to completely foreign territories. The dual drumming of Harris and Hills, cavalier-like, and as Maurice flails their violin like a flashing blade through the night, the Hendrix hypnotic-catharsis slowly turns into something akin to Godspeed You! Black Emperor on the downers. A coalition of sound that offers so many possibilities, it’s cerebral perplexity of the very best kind.

At over thirty minutes, it’s all one needs. No encores. No bullshit. Just lightning in a bottle, and this beautifully discordant set confirms one thing: as far as live acts are concerned, Water Damage is the only band you need in your life.