Live Review

Live At Leeds 2011 – Leeds

• 10th May 2011

A day of exceptional music, showcasing new bands, and bringing bands back to their roots, Live at Leeds was once again a great success.

But I am going to get my moans out the way first. Firstly, with SO many great ands to see, at venues all over town, it was manic trying to arrange who to see, and with so many clashes too! But that was it, I still managed a jam packed day full of exceptional bands!

Arriving latish to the proceedings we’d missed some of the smaller names, but hey that’s what happens when trains from London are cancelled, but got there in time to see ‘Just Handshakes We’re British’ in the Met Back Room. Behind all the hype behind them is a serene, almost Slow Club and The Wedding Present sound, which although fun for one song I could see getting a little monotonous and whiney with no change in style of each song.

Stagecoach, in the Leeds University Stylus, were brilliant. I can’t explain the fun that I had just watching them, even though the room was barely half full, they really got the audience going. Their get up left nothing to the imagination, all headbands and short shorts, but the music itself was fun, exciting and really damn good! In fact, massive kudos to them, just back from tour with Johnny Foreigner, getting straight into it…literally, but moving both the mic stand and guitar to the audience and letting anyone that can help themselves to be stars for a second! If you want a top evening of music and these guys are playing near you, they would come strongly recommended.

Finding myself fairly impressed by the line-up in the Stylus we stayed there for most of the afternoon, next to watch Morning Parade. It was beautiful. Their one off UK show for a while was exceptional, but my heart went out to them, having to compete with a packed out, sold out, ‘secret’ Pigeon Detectives headline show! The sound that these gentlemen produced though was spectacular. Vibrant guitars, and heavy base, a very Muse-esqu, White Lies type of built for stadium anthems. It said in the Live at Leeds guide that they’d class them with Snow Patrol, and, well no offence to Gary Lightbody and the gang, but Morning Parade have got the ability to smash it bigger and better than Snow Patrol.

Next up was Slow Club, now being slightly biased as a massive fan they were good, and that’s a compliment. It was unorganised, half the length that it was advertised as being, they didn’t know what songs they were playing and out of the handful they did play, the majority of them were new ones. Now don’t get me wrong, live events like this are the perfect opportunity to showcase your new album, but not in a fashion like Slow Club did. The music they did play was great, they sounded good, I’m still always impressed that just two of them can make a sound as brilliant as they do, but it just wasn’t great. I am looking forward to seeing them again, as they said they’ve got a band joining them now for new songs, rather than interest. Shame.

Thinking it was about time we moved venues, we headed downstairs to the Mine. Here we were greeted by bright sunlight pouring through the window…and strobe lights trying for a stage effect. Weird. Duologue was the reason. Billed as post-dubstep rock, somewhere between muse and pendulum, it sounds as weird as it was. Now I’m pretty open to music, and I can see how this is a concept that could work but the five-piece on stage were not coordinated enough for it to happen well. It just sounded like a mess, and a bizarre one at that.

Next up was the absolute highlight of my day. Back in the Stylus in time for the Futureheads. I didn’t mind that I was missing Dutch Uncles, or Dinosaur Pile Up, for here in touching distance were the most down to earth, funny four piece from Sunderland that you will ever see. Catching a cheeky glimpse of their post gig warm up (high fives and massive piss taking), they bought to the stage a stunning atmosphere. A great mix of songs, some that you haven’t heard for ages and then the announcement that made me wet myself with excitement… their next album ladies and gentlemen is to be an a cappella album. Now I know lots of you are going to be thinking WTF (excuse the colloquialism) but they previewed a few of their songs and they are SPECTACULAR. Watching these instrumentless songs live also bring that sense of goose-bumps, when the crowd join in (they taught us the words to the chorus) and the excitement of seeing quite how musically talented all the members of the band were. Hounds of Love came second to last, almost everyone’s favourite, including the slightly odd, obvious students (again no offence) dancing around in the pit with their shoes on their hands (no, I didn’t get it either but then think of the lyrics ‘take your shoes off/and throw them in the lake’…). Simply exceptional.

Fighting our way in for a packed out Pulled Apart By Horses gig in the Met, I was left thinking of the wondrous sight I’d witnessed at the previous show, and paid very little attention to this gig, as aside from being full, it was less than attention grabbing. After this I’m afraid the night became mine, and although I would have loved to have crammed more bands into my day it just wasn’t possible. A rival to Camden Crawl it sure was, so make sure you Live at Leeds the support it needs to continue next year too.