Live At Leeds

Only a week after London’s Camden Crawl, Leeds is hosting its own multi-venue weekend music festival.  Signs announcing “Live At Leeds is now sold out” greet punters at the entrance to each venue and remind us that the Leeds music scene is as vibrant and vital as ever.

After collecting our wristbands for the day, we head to our long-standing favourite local venue The Cockpit in time to catch General Fiasco.  Teenage fans crowd the front row for the Northern Irish boys and their youthful songs, occupying a middle ground between rock and pop, provide a light hearted start to our day of musical madness.

Navigating our way from The Cockpit to Holy Trinity Church we find that the sun has brought out not only all of Leeds’ music fans but an awful lot of Saturday shoppers as well.  As the day wears on we’re playing Frogger with pedestrians in order to get to venues on time, but for now we arrive early at Holy Trinity for James Yuill’s set and take a seat in the pews.  Yes, pews. This venue is a working church and you’d be forgiven for recalling the phrase “music is my religion” as Yuill stands in front of the alter, playing electro and acoustic songs which are amplified by the church’s architecture, making them HUGE.  After thirty minutes we emerge in a dream-like state and head up to Leeds Met Union for something completely different.

The Brute Chorus are a lot more raw and of-the-moment in comparison and their music has a Gogol Bordello-esque gypsy-punk edge to it, with singer James Steel not looking too unlike Eugene Hutz himself.  ’Grow Fins’ is the highlight of their set while ‘Chateau’ weaves a wonderful lyrical story and we leave rather impressed, making a mental note to keep an eye and an ear on this band.

It’s now 5pm and queues have started to build up outside the more popular venues so The Cockpit is full when we arrive for Sky Larkin.  After unsuccessfully attempting to listen in from outside the stage door we refuel and head back to the Met.  Little Death are on next and in between apologizing for being half-asleep, they perform a set which would fail to wake most people up. It’s grungy and the French would like it but it’s not for us.

So off to Gary Stewart at Holy Trinity we trot. His upbeat folk-music is relaxed, unpretentious and well-played.  It’s not pushing any boundaries but it is enjoyable and we are able to chill-out for a little while before once again running off to the Met for Dinosaur Pile-Up.

A rather large queue greets us at the venue and after a little sweet-talking, we hurry in to grab a place in the main room which has been opened for the last three bands of the evening.  Dinosaur Pile-Up are grungy like Little Death but they have an urgency which makes them exciting to watch.  Leaning towards early Kings Of Leon in style, they have gathered a large crowd and even a small mosh pit. The sound lets them down as it’s a bit fuzzy around the edges but there’s definitely something here.

Next are Grammatics and as local heroes of the festival, they’ve got a lot of fans in attendance.  Owen Brinley’s vocals soar between effeminate and howling, accompanying the ethereal cello and uneasy guitars.  They are the most interesting and engaging band we hear all day, with tension building throughout the set to be released during closer ‘Relentless Fours’.  ”Everyone loves a breakdown” sings Brinley before we are assulted by all their instruments in minor keys and he jumps into the crowd, guitar and all, with security fighting to get him back to the stage as his band members look on.  Effing brilliant.

We could go home happy at this point but there’s a new “one-to-watch” headlining Holy Trinity.  Marina And The Diamonds are a new signing to Atlantic Records and it’s looking like they’ll be a thoroughly hyped act come summer time.  Tonight Marina is all sparkles as she takes her place in front of the altar and immediately kicks off her heels.  Kooky pop songs with lots of whoops and dance moves make us think Shakira and Florence And The Machine all at once.  Her set is not without its flaws though, and she could easily fade into the array of female vocalists if it wasn’t for her performance of one particular song.  A cover of Gwen Stefani’s ‘What You Waiting For?’ is well executed (despite a falling-apart microphone) but it is ‘Obsessions’ which has us nearly in tears.  Marina gives such an emotional performance of this song that we are honest-to-god almost crying. A hint that she’s a strong performer, we are hoping to see her again after a few more months of experience on the live circuit.

But now, to the after-party!  Good Shoes are the special guests at the Brudenell Social Club and after a quick bus ride, despairing at the length of the queue and a slight argument with the lady on the door, we are in! Chants of “ Yorkshire! Yorkshire!”, a house-party atmosphere, an ice cold G&T and mass stage-invasion leaves everyone in high spirits and the band wrestling away from over-excited fans.  It’s the perfect end to a long, long day and evidence that above all, music fans in Leeds just want to have a good time.

Published on The-Fly.co.uk