“Yorkshire! Yorkshire! Yorkshire!” sounds the chant from inside The Key Club. “Oh, here we fucking go,” grins Mattie Vant.
Live At Leeds is the first proper festival of the year but you don’t really want to hear about our calender, do you. The other 364 days don’t matter today. After an opening warmup from Future Islands, People (and one inflatable flamingo) bound from venue to venue to pub backroom to city centre and back again, chasing the bands that have dominated their playlists and have promised to be worth watching. There’s excitement around every corner, whether it’s from our Get Inuit t-shirt (that we were press-ganged into wearing) to seeing band members out in the wild, and that translates across every show we see. There’s no stepping back and waiting to be impressed here in Leeds. It’s a full-bodied propulsion that sees the festival want to embrace it all.
Here’s everything important that happened.
12:00
We say hello to Husky Loops. Hi Husky Loops.
Ok, not everything is important.
12:47 Dead Naked Hippies:
Dead Naked Hippies start strong, bouncing around with the sort of vigour that could be dangerous considering how much kit is packed into the tiny stage. The music is equally chaotic, enough shrieking vocals for the emo kids at the front but plenty of driving rock rhythm for the old timers lingering at the back. ‘Drain You’ is a highlight, the result of a brooding kickabout between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Nirvana. (JW)
14:00 Husky Loops
The Londoner’s are infectious – a viral threat to any sedate atmosphere, commanding a fatal attraction which only intensifies when trying to solve the puzzle hidden in their music. Their idiosyncratic creations perplex and entice like a piece of modern art. it’s only a matter of time before more heads are turned and Husky Loops make the jump from the bizarre to beloved purveyors of far-out rock. (ER)
16:00 King Nun (Gallery)
“We’re King Nun and we know what you’re thinking, ‘oh, another band called King something’.” From the off, King Nun are self-aware but never expected. Tumbling about the stage, the band toy with chaos and control, somehow never tipping over but avoiding the predictable at all costs. ‘Tulip’ is a rampaging monster, all vicious melody and unhinged laughter while ‘Hung Around’ leans back from your face, playing hard to get but still writing you poetry. Every shade of King Nun is drastically different but instead of clashing, their rag-tag rainbow is furiously vibrant and brilliantly odd. (AS)
17:00 Black Honey (Gallery)
There’s so much expectation surrounding the will they/won’t they/when will they release of their debut album, it’s easy to forget how many songs Black Honey already have. Stepping away from the big picture and welcome to a world where Black Honey aren’t on the cusp of greatness, ‘cos they’re already there. Packing out the o2 Academy, the band don’t blink as they careen through a back catalogue that’s jam-packed with huge choruses, sunshine escape and lashings of their curled lip personality.
In a half hour of power, it’s newest darling ‘Somebody Better’ that shines a little brighter, all roadtrip freedoms and lush, wistful landscapes, but it’s a close contest. Every movement adds another edge to their already-crafted vision and even the devil in the details is wearing a wicked grin. (AS)
18:15 Dead!
From the off Dead! are clear with what they want to achieve when presented with an opportunity to strut their stuff. Mercurial in their demeanour, the band are breathless, and happily concentrate on evoking the same passionate retort that can be found on their recorded tracks. A swathe of genuine emotion rings out from every lyric and rattling riff as the band chug along from start to finish. (ER)
19:00 The Magic Gang (Gallery)
Somewhere along the line, The Magic Gang transformed themselves from off-centre indie misfits, balancing a love of pop and the past, to proper stars. As they take to the Church backed with latest EP ‘Three’, everything is in place for a showing of majesty and beauty. There’s no such refrain here though. From the off, it’s marvelous chaos as the band pluck their melody-heavy hooks from the background and parade them about the room. ‘How Can I Compete’ is still a jangly bag of rhythm and good vibrations but shared with a room full of people, it’s a raging anthem of admiration. There’s a sparkle in the air, it’s the unlikeliest party this side of 1999 and it feels like sheer magic. (AS)
19:15 Idles
“SAINSBURY’S! SAINSBURY’S! SAINSBURY’S!” is not the sort of chant you’d expect to hear ringing around our stage between Idles’ vociferous, anti-establishment gripes. But thanks to a fresh-out-of-his-supermarket-day-job reveller, hauled on-stage by Joe Talbot, it’s not only cuts from the snarling ‘Brutalism’ that’s lapped up by an anarchic audience.
“The best way to scare a tory is to read and get rich”, screams Talbot during the fuzzed-up and hooky ‘Mother’. Hammered out towards the set’s end, ‘Well Done’ is equally as angst-ridden, and its energy is genuinely unparalleled at LAL.
Some bands make music to escape the world around them, some cloak philosophy in riddles and twisted semantics, whilst others challenge politics head-on in the most conspicuous form – this quartet do the latter. There’s a blistering punk-shaped volcano bubbling away in 2017; but whilst you’ll find genre-spearheads such as Slaves erupting into the mainstream psyche, your real Idles stand right in front of you. (JF)
20:15 HMLTD
By the time HMLTD take to the stage, the hype has already been well and truly planted. Strutting around Leeds all morning with full entourage in a dress code that can only be described as ‘militant-glam’, their set is one of the big curios of the day. Nobody is disappointed – their dirty, sexy shock-pop is fascinating and thrillingly impossible to predict. One minute they’re harking back to the glory days of the new rave, the next they’re haemorrhaging grit and glitter, skulking about the diminutive stage and pointing at members of the crowd as if some personally wrongdoing has taken place. By the time they climax with ‘Joanna’, we’re pretty confident that we’ve just witnessed one of the UK’s most exciting live bands. (JW)
20:35 Get Inuit (Gallery)
Get Inuit are a silly band. They spent the trip to LAL looking at camels and their onstage ‘banter’ doesn’t get anymore serious. “This is a new song called ‘All My Friends’. It probably won’t be as good as all the other songs but please like it,” pleads Jamie. As if anyone could resist its desire for a daydream or it’s twirling need for fun. Elsewhere ‘Pro-Procrastinator’ is a bursting release of frustration twisted into one of those defining-songs-of-a-generation while the jagged purity of ‘Barbiturates’, all deceiving serenity and ridiculous choruses features half a dozen Actual Moments that are both life-affirming and utterly escapist. Get Inuit are one of the best bands around and everyone present knows it. (AS)
20:45 Jagwar Ma – Live At Leeds host a glut of bands that are shaping tomorrow’s genres But whilst their bubbling blend is as alien as anything else here today, Jagwar Ma are indebted to the past. As a euphoric selection of late 20th century influences.
Anyone expecting a carbon copy of their catalogue would be mistaken; tunes are toyed with, extended and seem to drift in and out of a haze of re-emerging Madchester harmonies and acid-house belches. The set flows so well, it’s hard to know when a track ends and the next starts.
Armed with jittery dance shapes and a beaming ear-to-ear grin, Gabriel Winterfield is the triumphant cherry-on-the-cake focal point. Pumping, atmospheric and constantly danceable – the Aussi trio can do little more to boost their gradual climb up the ladder of festival bills. (JF)
21:30 VANT (Gallery)
By contrast, VANT are a bit more serious. There’s a very real message at the heart of everything they do and with ‘Dumb Blood’ out, it’s become very clear. They’re a band that are Doing Things and Saying Stuff. Instead of people trying to avoid the obvious though, the very full Key Club embraces it all. Party politics from the word go, the band rage through their set, constantly pushing the music to the end of its tether but never letting it snap. And as rampant and heated as things get ‘fuck me Leeds, there’s sweat dropping from the ceiling”, there’s a community of care throughout. Mattie stops someone crowdsurfing to protect the people at the front, water is handed out in an orderly fashion and when someone asks if they can sing onstage, of course the band oblige. Sure Nigel doesn’t really know how ‘Parking Lot’ starts but Mattie doesn’t let him leave until he’s nailed it. Afterall, VANT are a band keen to get people using their voice. (AS)
22:30 Wild Beasts
Drawing the festival and their own ‘Boy King’ era to a close, Wild Beasts look as if they’re having more fun than ever under the evening’s neon lights. Clad casually and throwing out anecdotes about their time spent dwelling in Leeds, they run through a career-spanning set with good humour, Tom Fleming doubling over with laughter as Hayden Thorpe throws caution to the wind during ‘Celestial Creatures’, clambering over the barrier and strolling casually through the crowd in a seemingly out-of-character impulse move. This giddy attitude doesn’t affect gameplay – ‘2BU’ is a threatening as ever and Lion’s Share, tonight’s sole outing from Smother, has gained a level of masculine energy, somehow more tense than ever when packed next to newer material. A fittingly local headliner, they leave admit mingling chants of ‘Yorkshire!’, ‘Leeds!’ and ‘Kendall!’ as heroes, encouraging the sort of tribalism you can only find in god’s own country. (JW)
22:40
“Oi Nigel, don’t forget your hat,” shouts Mattie Vant.
22:45
*starts counting down the days to Live At Leeds 2018*
All photos by Danny Payne except HMLTD by Georgia Richards.
Writers: Jennessa Williams, Jordan Foster, Elliot Ryder, Ali Shutler