Last Week In Leeds

The past week in Leeds has been eventful to say the least with the numerous bands who have played and the opening of the new venue, Nation of Shopkeepers. Very happy to have a day of rest as it's been so hectic. I'm keeping the reviews short due to the number of bands that have played since Wednesday.

Wednesday saw The Iron Wagon hosting an event at TJ's Woodhouse.

Gringo Star: Another band hailing from the Atlanta garage rock scene. Giving a pretty good tight live performance with catchy tunes, I do feel they are just a much more polished poppy version of Black Lips, which looses half the appeal for me.

Times New Viking: A band I haven't always been into but now the third time seeing them I'm totally converted. Their emotional live performances are better than their records, for me the best band of the night.

Mika Miko: The biggest let down of the night. From the few tracks I'd heard I didn't go in expecting much but came out even more disappointed.

Black Lips: Great band that I always expect to give great live performaces. Was slightly dissapointed with them compared to previous times I'd seen them, lead singer Jerard didn't seem to be feeling it (this could have been something to do with a date with the courts the following day). Possibly the reality is the new album just wasn't as 'Good Bad Not Evil' meaning shows on the '200 Million Thousand' tour just aren't as good.

Next up The Pains of Being Pure at Heart on Thursday at Cockpit.

The Manhattan Love Suicides: Didn't catch much of their set but wasn't feeling it at all. Found it pretty boring and monotonous.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart: Because I love their record so much I was slightly disappointed with their live performance. On record everything that makes it for me is how well produced and perfect sounding it is. Although I appreciate live performances loose a lot of this I got the impression the band aren't that emotionally about the record making them give a soulless performance.

Next up the One day festival Stag and Dagger came to town at various venues across the city. Unfortunately I only managed to see three acts.

Abe Vigoda: What a fantastic start to the night with these guys giving an amazing energetic performance. Playing all my favourite tracks from 'Skeleton' and the new E.P 'Reviver' couldn't asked for anything more.

Vivian Girls: Played to a busy show at the Library. Their Lo-Fi indie rock seemed to go down well with the crowd but most people seemed to be comenting on their beauty rather than their musical talent.

Telepathe: I had heard bad thing about Telepathes shows and so I wasn't surprised to be disapointed. Vocals were out of key, the drum machines sounded totally different to the record and I wasn't quite sure what they were actually doing live apart from triggering drum loops.

Saturday saw the opening of a new venue A Nation of Shopkeepers which is a fantastically decorated Bar/Venue which is going to place you can go in the day and have some food as well a night playing host to DJ's and bands from across the world. Opening night saw DJ sets from Lovefoxx of CSS which wasn't great but saw some decent bands and was a very successful night. I can see myself spending a lot of time and money at this place.

The Old Romantic Killer Band: Just two local guys one on drums the other on guitar playing energetic Blues/Grunge influence rock n' roll. Entertaining to watch and will definetly make the effort to see them again.

Dinosaur Pile-Up: Some more locals lads playing 90's grunge. Wasn't really for me but they knew how the work the crowd who all seemed to really enjoy it.


Sunday saw Deerhunter at the Brudenell.

Monster Killed By Lazer: First support band and I was really impressed dispite making some clear mistakes in the set. I wasn't a fan of everything but and times I was reminded of This Heat and others by MRR-ADM.

Bilge Pump: Really not doing it for me , surprised see they did seem to have some kind of following though.

Sian Alice Group: Again not really doing it for me. They just seemed to have a nice idea which got louder over time, pretty boring to watch.

Deerhunter: Did not dissapoint me in the slightest, although playing more stuff from old album then expected it's only encouraged me to listen to them more. Live are a really tight band and Bradford Cox is an entertaining front man. Doing a 4 track request encore was pretty fun to watch then Bradford did a stand up session at the end of the gig, where he was just playing with the crowd for his own entertainment more than anything.

Last of all was an all-dayer at A Nation of Shopkeepers hosted by Good Form Club. I turned up super early to go to the record fair only to find out it wasn't on, dispite this dissapointment it was a really good day with great DJ sets by Mark from Jumbo Records and Felix from The Golden Owl.

Twisted: Once again was a pleasure to watch these guys play their 'garage punk meets 80s DC post hardcore'. Possibly being slightly out of place on the bill the guys still gave an great show which I certainly enjoyed.

Pengilly's: I was pleasantly surprised seeing these guys play as it isn't something I would normally enjoy. Their multi-instrumental talent was undeniable and a pleasure to watch.

The XX: I was unfortunate enough to have to watch another gig by this band. My opinion remains the same as the post I made a couple weeks ago.

So it was a very hectic week. I'm looking forward to relaxing over the next few days but this weekend there is even more to see and do.