Review: Live at Leeds

Guest review from Hayley Scott, photos by Joel Rowbottom and Daniel Heaton

Live at Leeds seems to be growing year upon year, and the anticipation brought on by music fans alike created a noticeable buzz leading up to this years event, with people confidently claiming that this one was set to be the biggest and the best one since its debut five years ago. With this in mind, I hastily made my way to the city centre and prepared my self for a long day of musical mayhem.

Just Handshakes were responsible for kicking off my Live at Leeds experience at the Brudenell, a venue in which they have become increasingly familiar with throughout their live adventures as a band. This was emphasized by their performance as they comfortably and contently played a refreshingly endearing set, highlighted by Clara’s distinctive vocals with delicate undertones that echo that of their Swedish pop influences. The impressive turn out only confirmed that they are already quite established within Leeds’ local music scene, but they definitely deserve wider recognition elsewhere.

Ellen and the Escapades are another local band that have become a regular occurrence within the pages and screens of various music magazines and blogs. Ellen & co confirm speculation that their forte lies within literate, folk drenched pop; perfectly suited to the venue in which they showcase these qualities, made all the more obvious from the reverb that bounced off the church’s stone walls, inflicting a slightly haunting quality on each song. They continued to churn out warm, catchy little gems that turned out to be undeniable crowd pleasers as the church eventually filled up to capacity.

Intent on dividing my time between as many venues as possible, I ventured down to the Cockpit just in time for London trio Novella, whom I relied on for being the perfect pick-me-up after a somewhat laid back introduction to Live at Leeds. Novella succeeded in showing off their ability to purvey hypnotic psychedelic pop music as each song entranced the crowd with their enveloping, obscure rhythms, sugary vocals and startling harmonies.

A disorganised scurry back to Holy Trinity was rewarded with the opportunity to see Lucy Rose, the subject of many hotly tipped lists and one’s to watch for this year, perhaps with the help from her pals Bombay Bicycle Club, but those collaborations became irrelevant because she can well and truly hold her own. Lucy Rose was perfectly selected for this intimate venue as her dulcet tones echoed all around the beautiful interiors of the Holy Trinity Church, captivating the audience and catapulting us all into a state of post-gig slumber, awe and contentment.

I couldn’t help but notice that the headline acts appeared to have been selected from a game of ‘pin the tale on old copies of the NME’ and were all too familiar and old hat for my liking. For me, Live at Leeds is about discovering bands that wouldn’t usually be given such a platform, and aren’t necessarily something entirely unique but at least exude some kind of originality worthy of a lasting impression, it is also an excuse to get reacquainted with some of Leeds’ local talent, something that I found myself in the midst of throughout the day; if any thing, this years Live at Leeds excelled in showing off what our city has to offer and the abundance of bands that it has spawned. On keeping to this theme, This Many Boyfriends were next on my agenda to hopefully contribute to this sense of Yorkshire pride.

Shambolic nicely sums up the evening’s performance from This Many Boyfriends as they played a punk tinged set of Indie pop numbers bellowed out by singer Richard. Initially I am drawn to the bands charm, carelessness and penchant for Tina Weymouth and The Pastels, but they had little else to offer musically and in turn, offered little more than a Cribs imitation. Perhaps the Faversham crowd were merely coming down from a long day of music, booze and chaos, but they seemed reluctant to respond to Richard’s hyperactive stage antics and offstage mid-set shenanigans. Their shout-along choruses were in much need of some crowd contribution and it all seemed a little under-appreciated. I would like to say that This Many Boyfriends brought something uniquely promising to the Live at Leeds line up but instead brought forth the disappointing realisation that they are pursuing something that has already been tried, tested and sadly worn out. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful knowing that This Many Boyfriends quite clearly thrive on putting spontaneity and fun back in to live music.

My evening concluded with the help of Nottingham quintet Dog is Dead, who were welcomed with open arms from an enthused (perhaps alcohol induced) crowd of Brudenell punters. The addictive use of synth and trumpets while dabbling with grandiose choruses worked perfectly with their wonderfully executed harmonies over a well rounded combination of mellow and up-beat songs, creating their own gloomy and atmospheric interpretation of indie pop, and inevitably living up to the hype that they have so regularly been subjected to over the past year.