Chrissy Costanza & VOILÀ at Manchester Academy, 2024

Chrissy Costanza of Against the Current fame, brought her Spin the Bottle Tour with VOILÀ to Manchester’s Academy 3 on November 20th. Fans in the house this night (and there were a lot of them) got two hours of pop-rock journey, complete with 10 minutes of karaoke/vocal warmups before the show, narrated by the new AI companion for the show, Charlotte. The set was a dead split between VOILÀ’s material and Costanza’s, Chrissy showcased her debut solo EP VII, which was released on October 9th. The beginning few are all VOILA centric,  they share the stage for the opener, with ‘Caught It’, and VOILÀ takes over for ‘Drinking With Cupid’, ‘Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You’ & ‘Table For One’ in what is their first ever UK tour despite half the act being from Dorset.

Chrissy is much more linked with Manchester than even the Brit on stage, saying just before ‘But, What If I Fly?’ She’s been bigging up the UK and Manchester specifically the whole time this tour has been booked, with this being the third time she’s performed here in just over a year, counting in duties with Against the Current. Amidst the rest of the set are all remaining tracks from VII, including the ethereal #If Looks Could Kill’ and the empowering ‘What If Sin Could Save Me’ and ‘Perfect Crime’, whilst also peppering a couple of ATC tracks like ‘Wildfire’ and ‘Legends Never Die’, the latter of which appeared in the encore. VOILÀ Alternatively took their share of the spotlight, lighting the room up with fan torches during ‘Cursive’ and ‘Long Story Short’. ‘Glass Half Empty’ & ‘Something Blue’ were probably two of their strongest of the night. The show’s structure relied mostly on the two vocalists rotating in and out, though a few tracks like ‘Wish It On You’ see them share. 

The evening concluded with a rousing encore, with VOILÀ starting the final three with ‘Figure You Out’, before it’s Chrissy’s turn with the aforementioned ‘Legends Never Die’. They bring the night to a close with the duet of ‘7 Minutes in Hell’, which gets a rousing response from Gus Ross on his part. VOILÀ’s sentimental importance for this tour was touched on earlier. Still, Chrissy stated that she had equal weight earlier in the night as the purpose of the solo project was to prove she could do something as her after many years in her youth being the one on the outside. Costanza has been proving her prowess for years in ATC with incredible vocal ability, but she and VOILÀ certainly left their respective marks on Manchester with this show