Kiefer Sutherland: New Century Hall, Manchester – Live Review

Kiefer Sutherland | Colin Andrew
New Century Hall, Manchester
18th May 2026.

Four albums deep into a country and Americana career that has nothing to do with Hollywood, Kiefer Sutherland rolls into New Century Hall on the eve of his new record Grey, due at the end of this month, for a night of covers, dustbowl ballads and honky tonk. Thom Sidwell went down to check it out.

New Century Hall has seen a few things in its time. The Stones. The Roses. But Kiefer Sutherland (yes, of 24 fame) in a giant hat and cowboy boots, turning a Garbage song into a country hymn? Oh well, why not eh?

Before Sutherland takes the stage, Kerryman Colin Andrew warms the room up with considerable charm. A decade-plus of live performance, including a two-year residency at Disney World’s Raglan Road and TV appearances alongside The High Kings, has given him an easy confidence with a crowd, and it shows. His alt-pop set, rooted in indie, folk and traditional Irish music, is lively and unpretentious, and a cover of Champagne Supernova gets the room onside early. He’s clearly having a brilliant time up there, and that energy is infectious. A fine way to open the evening.

Within a couple of songs, the room has quietly let go of every reservation it arrived with, although it seems on first scan that there are a lot of fans of Kiefer Sutherland, wearing merch from previous gigs, so it appears the ex-24 star has built up a sizeable following.

This is a man four albums deep into a country and Americana career that has nothing to do with Hollywood and everything to do with convictions. Actually, one of his songs is about leaving Hollywood. More on that later. Grey, his new record due at the end of this month, sounds like the work of someone who has found his purpose, or what he really wants to do. He opens with the first real statement of who he is and what he’s about, a country reinvention of Garbage’s Only Happy When It Rains that lands brilliantly. The crowd takes a second, then gets it completely. You can feel the room shift.

Goodbye California follows, and Sutherland talks between songs throughout: easy, unhurried, a natural on stage and handling a crowd, explaining this one was written as he left the state after 35 years, heading east to farmland and a different kind of life. There’s a Tom Petty warmth to it with that lovely Rickenbacker 12 jangle, the sound of a man making peace with a place that shaped him. His voice, lived-in, gravelly, whiskey and years in every note, is very pleasant.

The set has real range and real guts. Come Back Down is the standout from the new material – slow, dustbowl atmosphere. Sutherland calls it his personal favourite from the record – saying you should never pick your favourite child, but we all have one… And he’s right, I do have my favourite cat. He’s right. American Farmer carries the same weight, sketching rural hardship with the stark dignity of something Willie Nelson or John Mellencamp would be proud of. When Can’t You See, the Marshall Tucker Band classic, opens up into something vast and exploratory, and later when See You on the Other Side reframes Ozzy Osbourne through an Americana lens, you realise Sutherland’s instinct for reinvention runs far deeper than novelty.

The band behind him are exceptional. The lap steel player adds genuine ache to the slower material throughout the night, and guitarist Ash Wilson is given space to breathe on multiple occasions and makes the most of every second. When the set finds its honky tonk gear, Two Stepping in Time, then the barnstorming This Is How It’s Done, New Century’s famous dance floor does exactly what it was built to do.

The encore delivers a dark, country-rock overhaul of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight, Wilson stretching out beautifully across it, before 2AM closes the night on something quieter and more meditative, leaving the room in that particular warmth that only a genuinely great gig produces.

Sutherland is a likeable presence and clearly means every word of it. Whether the music would fill a room like this without the name above the door is another question. But on a Monday night in Manchester, it did just the trick.

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Find Kiefer Sutherland on his website, or visit Facebook, Instagram and X

Words by Thom Sidwell – find him on Instagram here

All photos by Kristy Eighteen – Instagram