Machine Girl LIVE at the Ritz: Manchester meets digital hardcore

Words: Gethin Marshall

Images: Gethin Marshall

The crowd is getting agitated. The energy hasn’t dropped since the last opener left the stage,

but by now it’s been just long enough for the tension to rise once again. Suddenly, a cheer goes up as a figure appears through the smoke at the rear of the stage. It’s the drummer, Sean Kelly; as he makes his way slowly to the kit a number of phones are raised aloft in anticipation for whatever will happen next. The guitarist- 2024 addition and newest member Lucy Caputi- comes next, making her way to the other raised platform on stage left. No notes have actually been played yet, but still the jittering thrum of the crowd has quietened a little. Finally, a blaze of white light projects out across the sea of upturned faces and Matt Stephenson, frontman and sole founder of the project, steps out of the smoke. Finally, the full lineup of cult band and digital hardcore pioneers Machine Girl is complete. Stephenson is wearing a ridiculously garish pair of purple trousers covered in lightning bolts, and this will be the least over-the-top part of his performance tonight. After a few moments longer, the vocal sample from We Don’t Give A Fuck- the opening track of their most recent album PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra- begins to loop. The build is slow and calculated, with wild distortions of static and synths, but finally Kelly’s drums are kicking in along with Caputi’s chugging riffs, and when the screams of Stephenson’s vocals join the fray the speakers crescendo in a wave of noise.

This gig comes a little over halfway through the cult trio’s UK/Europe tour following the release of their latest album, the aforementioned PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra of October 2025; a colourful riot of noise, this album includes more hardcore punk influence than ever before, without straying totally from their trademark pioneering digital sound, and their live performance is definitely a reflection of this. As I look down over the crowd, I can see mosh pits opening up immediately; I’d be down there myself but I’d had the bad luck of dislocating my shoulder two nights before. As it stands, my left arm is confined to a sling and I am confined to my vantage point on the balcony, and it is becoming very clear that I made the right choice in not risking even more damage. Still, the spacious wrap-around balcony of the o2 Ritz is not something to complain about at all, and I’ve got a panoramic view of both the melee below and the antics unfolding onstage.

Before even getting to the music itself, the lightwork is definitely worth mentioning- even from

my out-of-the-way standpoint, my eyes are bombarded by a series of kaleidoscopic, gyrating

beams projected from above the stage. These have become even more intense as Machine Girl now take the stage, but also made their presence felt during the opening acts. These came in the form of a manic DJ set by breakcore pioneer and scene legend Goreshit and a deafening industrial performance by Manchester noise rock four piece Mandy, Indiana. The latter of the two are a band I had not heard of previously, and it’s fair to say I know them now; their drum-and synth-driven sound is filled with weight and brutality, especially with Paris-born vocalist Valentine Caulfield’s yells mixed in, with lyrics written mostly in French. Some of the material played was from their upcoming sophomore album, URGH, which will be released on February 6th.

Returning to the scene before me, the heavy, erratic beats are already leaving a sheen of sweat across the shoulders of drummer Kelly; without seeing it live, it would not be an unfounded assumption for the average listener to assume Machine Girl relies wholly on drum machines-now it is evident that this is far from the case. He doesn’t slow down once throughout the whole set either, and I can’t even guess at the number of calories burned in one performance; it’s a masterclass of endurance and skill.

The guitarist Caputi, on the other hand- while no less energetic in her playing- is more

measured in terms of stage presence, carefully tending to her wide rack of effects pedals and occasionally interjecting with abrasive backing vocals. The sound of her guitar is difficult to define, certainly because of the constantly changing aforementioned pedals, but also as a result of the band’s evident harsh noise and industrial influences, along with the videogame-esque injections of the synths.

Finally, like a mad ship’s captain, frontman Stephenson leaps and screams before the crowd,

sometimes playing his long bass manically, other times running back and forth with only the

microphone in hand. As the performance goes on, his movements become continually more

erratic; at one point, he disappears from the stage completely, only to pop out near the rear of the crowd below me, successfully riling up those few that remain milling about near the back. As he returns to the stage, he drags a chair from backstage with him, and over the next few songs proceeds to alternately sit on, kick over or leap off said chair with wild abandon. Nearing the end of the show, he finishes with a grand stage dive from the front railing over the feverish sea of bodies below me.

In the end, despite my inability to really get in the mix of things, I walk away from the show

feeling as though I’ve been boxed around the ears, sonically at the very least. Their most recent is a masterclass of punk-influenced digital hardcore, with a yet-heavier sound than previous releases, and their live show does not disappoint. To finish the tour in Europe, they will go on to play consecutive dates in Antwerp, Paris, Utrecht, Cologne and Berlin between the 4-8 of February. For now, though, I step out into the evening air with my ears ringing. As I make my way to the bus stop, a man hands me a wilted rose and wishes me a good night. Little does he know, I’ve already had one.