Audio

Cage the Elephant at Manchester O2 Apollo – as electric, explosive and energetic as ever

AND they brought flowers.

Daisy Jackson - 15th February 2025

Candlelit dinners, intimate moments, cosy nights in – OR, for a few thousand of us, a Valentine’s Day spent putting our eardrums to the test and watching a slender rock star wriggle about for two hours.

I know which I’d choose, any day of the week, because despite a five-year break from touring, Cage the Elephant remain one of the most electrifying live acts on the planet.

And frontman Matt Shultz still remembered to get us flowers, flinging dozens of red roses into the audience. What a romantic.

The six-piece, formed back in 2006 in Kentucky, are back in town for the first time since early 2020.

In that time, Shultz experienced a medication-induced psychotic breakdown, something he’s spoken publicly about and that he addresses on stage, saying he feels ‘grateful’ to be back performing.

Cage the Elephant have got a new-ish album with them in Neon Pill, but they don’t give it much weight in the setlist, which is mostly filled with songs from Tell Me I’m Pretty, Melophobia and Social Cues.

For long-time fans of the band this is a relief.

It’s hard to beat their tracks like Trouble with its zig-zagging bass, the surprisingly moving Cigarette Daydreams which has an entire room belting along, and the slow-build, semi-Western anthem that is Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked.

They get off to a very strong start, firing through Broken Boy, Cry Baby and Spiderhead before they pause to say hello to a crowd that’s been suitably loosened up by the glam-grunge sound of Sunflower Bean, the New York outfit whose lead, Julia Cumming, is either teetering on fiercely high platforms or otherwise thrashing her bass from her knees.

As usual with Cage the Elephant’s staging, most of the kit is crammed into a third of the stage. You need A LOT of space for a firecracker frontman like Matt Shultz, not to mention his guitarist brother Brad.

I can only imagine how chaotic their house was growing up, but they’re the most entertaining siblings in rock n roll and yes, I’m aware how inflammatory that sentence is on a Manchester page.

There’s even a guitar smash towards the end from Brad, which I didn’t think was a thing we were still doing. In this economy!?

The energy they bring to the O2 Apollo is never-ending, like during Mess Around when it seems that Matt might wriggle out of his own skin, Cold Cold Cold where he gets so giddy he can’t keep both feet on the ground, and Sabretooth Tiger which is intensely lively.

The hardest working person in the crew is the poor fella trying to keep Matt spotlit as he judders and slinks back and forth across the stage.

Cage the Elephant clearly LOVE Manchester, even enquiring about the status of Big Hands (yep, still thriving).

And by the time we hit the encore, wrapping up with Come A Little Closer, it’s pretty clear this crowd loves them right back.

Cage the Elephant setlist

Broken Boy
Cry Baby
Spiderhead
Too Late to Say Goodbye
Good Time
Cold Cold Cold
Ready to Let Go
Neon Pill
Social Cues
Halo
Mess Around
Trouble
Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked
Skin and Bones
Rainbow
Telescope
House of Glass
Sabertooth Tiger
Encore:
Back Against the Wall
Shake Me Down
Cigarette Daydreams
Come a Little Closer