Document at the Windmill Brixton

By Jon Milton 

Real gigs are back! It’s been 18 long months since we’ve been able to stand alongside each other in a crowded sweaty room watching bands get up and do their stuff, but happily those days are here again, and it feels great!

First gig back, and the headline band was Manchester’s Document, who emerged in early 2020 with their stunning debut ‘Pity’. With the release of their subsequent EP ‘A Camera Wanders at Night’ the band looked set to take the alternative music world by storm, only to find their progress halted by the pandemic. This gig, the Windmill Brixton, was the penultimate date of their first UK wide tour, and their first appearance in the capital. 

Support on the night came from Loose Articles, fellow Manchester residents who certainly made their presence known with their feisty brand of punk. Brash and in your face, what the band lacked in musicianship they certainly made up for in spirit and charisma. No doubt by the time they support the Foo Fighters in February next year, they will have had time to get their set absolutely bang on.

Despite their lack of touring opportunity to date, Document are very much close to the the finished article. As we found when we interviewed the band last year the band have extensive experience of treading the boards with other artists and their level of professionalism really showed. In lead singer Alex they have a front-man with real presence on stage. At times he seemed to be lost in a trance or acting out a persona, before suddenly coming back into the room to look the audience straight in the eye and bump heads with the nodding throng. 

Document are however certainly not a one-man band. Each of the other members all played their part, confidently strutting around, rocking out and providing additional focal points for the show. The band opened with the masterful ‘ The Spy Who Came In from the Cold’ and concluded with a frantic version of ‘Pity’ a fitting finale for an excellent performance. In between were a mixture of tracks from the EP and unreleased songs, providing an exciting glimpse of what’s on the horizon from the band. They perhaps need one or two more songs with the intensity of 'Pity' but no doubt they'll come in time. They also need to be playing on a bigger stage!