Live Review : Volbeat + Bush + Witch Fever @ AO arena, Manchester on November 8th 2025

Bonfire night may have ostensibly passed by a couple of nights ago, but as Volbeat and co roll into Manchester’s packed AO Arena, an incendiary evening of rock (et) n’ roll fireworks seems to be all but guaranteed.  Calling your latest foray around the arenas of Europe “The Greatest of all Tours” is a formidable boast but is it one that the three bands on the bill can live up to? Time will tell… 

Bathed in blood red lights, and with a haunting intro, Manchester’s own Witch Fever start things off, setting their stall out early in a set of evocative and beguiling contrasts. Atmospheric, bold and doomy, at other times bucolic and drenched in mesmeric melancholy, like the soundtrack to a folk horror movie, ethereal vocals and quieter arrangements, segue into heavier passages, singer Amy Walpole and bassist Alex Thompson prowling the runway, and playing off each other’s intensity.  Alex delivers monolithic bass lines, a big part of the bands brooding sound, whilst Amy flips effortlessly between melody and angry vitriol at the drop of a hat.  Most of the set comes from the recently released “Fevereaten” album and with the venue looking close to capacity even this early on, Witch Fever take full advantage of the opportunity afforded them to make an impression on the crowd gathered in their masses.   

Bush on the other hand, have nothing to prove.  Having been playing around the globe since the 1990s the band have been there, done that, and seen it all, probably many times over.  Tonight, they are evidently having a great time with the Manchester crowd and in doing so, mightily impress many who either missed them first time around or had forgotten exactly what made the band such a huge success back in the day, with a sublimely professional performance. Gavin Rossdale is energy personified, beginning the set with a guitar but quickly ditching it, allowing even greater freedom to become ever more animated. He bounces, hops and spins around the runway with reckless abandon, a soul lost in the music. 

Heavier than many may have expected, songs like ‘Bullet Holes’ and ‘The Land of Milk and Honey’ show off Bush’s guitar heavy sound with some glorious six string exploits from the behatted Chris Traynor. There’s an unexpected version of ‘Come Together’ that gets the crowd singing along in fine voice whilst a spine-tingling version of ‘Swallowed’, with Gavin alone with minimum instrumentation is quite breathtaking.  Those modern-day lighters, the phone torches go up and illuminate the arena in an introspective moment that stands out amongst the louder and more bombastic fare we’ve seen so far. Tonight, Bush prove that time is no barrier to performing at the top of your game and that they remain an impressive live proposition.  Simply, a class act. 

As the clock ticks ever closer to show-time for the headliners, numbers on the floor have swollen even further, all eyes on the on the flowing curtains that envelop the stage.  As the screens stage-side come to life and the intro video plays - the sound often at a sub-sonic level making the whole room thrum - anticipation reaches fever-pitch as the curtains fall and the band launch into the opening number. 

Honestly, more people need to discover the glory that is Volbeat.  From the very first strum of ‘The Devil’s Bleeding Crown’ until they exit the stage eighteen songs later, they seem hellbent on ensuring every last person leaves the AO Arena with a grin on their face and a renewed faith in the transcendent power of the finest rock music. This was a horns-throwing, heart-pumping, crowd-surfing, pit-spinning, singalong tour-de-force, arena rock in the grandest but most classic of traditions.   

There is something absolutely captivating about Volbeat, both unique in sound and approach, they really are something rather special; it seems incredible that not too many years ago the band were still playing smaller theatres, for such is their confidence and ease in the arena environment that you would think that this was a band who have been plying their trade on the biggest of stages for decades. Ironically though, they somehow manage to make a huge venue feel remarkably intimate, a trick that not many bands manage, and certainly not with the consummate ease witnessed tonight. Much of this has to be down to the easy charm and charisma of singer/guitarist, Michael Poulsen. The (Vol) beating heart of the band, the crowd hangs off his every utterance; they clap, they throw horns, they singalong with a passion and fervour like tonight was the last show they’re ever going to see on the eve of the Apocalypse.   

This is a true arena show, complete with a big production; so there’s multiple backdrops, an impressive lighting rig, billowing smoke cannons and a diamond-headed runway spearing out into the crowd.  Credit must also go to the camera operators who expertly live-feed images to the two huge screens that flank the stage, this too adding to the immediacy of the show and bringing each band member up close and personal for even those furthest from the stage. 

Perennial favourite, ‘Lola Montez’ is deployed early on in the set and is utterly triumphant, the roar of approval that greets it when the crowd recognises it, enough to lift the stoniest of hearts. Looking around expressions of delight and joy are writ large on the faces of young and old alike. It feels like an encore such is the euphoria it evokes, and it’s only the second song! So, how do you follow that? A handbrake turn into ‘Ring of Fire’ that’s how, with the crowd taking the vocals, before the band launch into ‘Sad Man’s Tongue’. It's an early salvo of crowd-pleasers before the introduction of ‘Demonic Depression' the first of the four songs in the set that showcase latest album “God of Angels Trust”. Overall tonight’s set is a career-spanning affair, dipping into almost every album at least once, surely many a Volbeat fans dream set list. 

Second of the new numbers, ‘In the Barn of the Goat giving Birth to Satan’s Spawn in a Dying World of Doom’ is equal parts ridiculous and magnificent, but Volbeat do it with their tongue planted firmly in their cheek. And let’s be honest, any song which has the audience bleating like a goat is not taking itself too seriously. But in complete contrast, we also get the emotional and poignant ‘Time Will Heal’, introduced by Michael with a vulnerability and openness that you can’t help but relate to. Powerful and deeply felt with beautifully heartfelt lyrics, it’s never mawkish or sentimental but authentic and painfully honest; it's a change of pace that shows the breadth and depth of the bands canon and their ability to rock hard but with emotion all at the same time. 

The rest of the set blurs past in a haze of highlights, far too many to mention each and every one.  But to name a couple, with a fiery ‘Die to Live’, a phenomenal ‘Seal the Deal’ and crowd surfers catapulted towards the waiting arms of security on the barrier (at Michael’s suggestion), there was something here for every person to take away with them, and everyone will have their own individual favourite moment in a fantastic night. 

‘Fur Evigt' is a thing of beauty with a huge number of the crowd singing along in the band’s native Danish, showing just how committed Volbeat’s legion of fans are, happy to learn lyrics in a language not their own and not the easiest to get their tongues around. It’s a wondrous and beautiful thing to witness as is bringing young fans on-stage for penultimate number ‘Still Counting’, the sense of camaraderie and family inspiring and wonderful to see. 

At the top we said that tonight was dubbed “The Greatest of all Tours” and you know what, as the fans left the arena, exhausted and exhilarated in equal measure, I doubt that many there would argue with that statement.   

Come back soon Volbeat, you were, quite frankly sensational… 

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Volbeat + Bush + Witch Fever