Back in Leeds once again, and on the home straight of their latest UK tour, Pulled Apart By Horses skid across the Brudenell finish line to launch their freshly pressed self-titled album with the help of a few friends.
Blacklisters hit the stage like a nail bomb. Their gritty, droning hardcore oozes with the bloody juices of Daughters’ groaning discords, Converge’s visceral intensity, the fury of early Glassjaw and the whip lash dramatics of pageninetynine. Howling over this cacophony of prime cut carnage, the Rollins-esque screams of a man possessed; stalking across the front row of the crowd with his barking, one man mic assault. A stunning set of scalpel witted hardcore blessed with a brooding intelligence to match its feral, bone-breaking rages.Now imagine a parallel universe where 65daysofstatic embraced violins instead of electronics. Your mind should hopefully sound like something as wonderful as Talons. Their post-rock tinged, ever-so-slightly mathed up instrumentals lacked nothing in the face of the blasted, cratered wake of Blacklisters. With breathtaking climaxes and biting guitar lines, the band manages to match the scale of Joe Murphy’s In A House, In A Heartbeat whilst cramming each moment with the desperate energy of Thursday’s Jet Black New Year. Sets such as these win you fans and Talons left the stage with a crowd engrossed.
After the two bands before them, Stagecoach feel misplaced and half-baked. What began as a refreshing early bid at indie pop quirkiness quickly fell flat into lazy malaise of self indulgence and unimaginative, worn out gimmicks. Its never good when a band attempts to fill the void where their songwriting should reside with incessant whooping and repetitive hollering.
Holy State wasted no time in reclaiming the night’s momentum with a set of solid yet samey, grunged up indie-hardcore. Falling somewhere between The Murder City Devils and yourcodenameis:milo they just about summoned the energy to inject some much needed life into their set. However, the music itself felt rather stale and functional rather than truly gripping or compelling. Although a welcome nudge back on track after Stagecoach’s near derailment, they delivered the necessary rather than the outstanding. With countless bands snapping at their heels to over-take them as a perpetual fixture on the Leeds circuit, Holy State are going to have to come up with something new and soon. An adequately lively performance non the less.
Kicking the action up a couple of notches with their surging set of crushing yet elegant rock’n’roll hardcore, These Monsters were the perfect base camp stop off before the night’s headliners. With howling saxophones, gutteral screams and a loose, meandering sense of direction to their songwriting, their set sweated out substance and style by the drunken bucket load. A tongue slicing uppercut to stun the masses before the knock out blow.
Pulled Apart By Horses; the band most had come to see. As the techies prepared the stage, the dance floor heaved with new recruits from the back of the room. With the band’s national hype levels rocketing through the roof, this could well be the last chance for many here tonight to catch the Leeds four piece at such an intimate venue. After the unorthodox intro of a Pulled Apart-centric pop quiz to the audience, hosted by Barrie of Milk White White Teeth, the big feline throat punchers launched into a set full of favourites and soon-to-be-very-familiar morsels from their self-titled debut. In a flash the up-until-now mild mannered crowd flipped into the kind of fight night fracas so sadly missing from the earlier band’s sets. Fists, limbs and body parts flew as a never ending torrent of stage divers flew through the sky with most landing on their faces in the midst of the ever-growing pit that exploded with appreciation as the big guns were rolled out; “High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive”, “Back To The Fuck Yeah” and, of course, “I Punched A Lion In The Throat”. Not only was this an end of tour album launch party, it was also guitarist, James Brown’s birthday, and after the mandatory cake and sing-a-long-a-happy-birthday candles were extinguished and the birthday boy leapt into the fray of the lawless masses. As the set descended into delightful chaos and a grand finale, it was clear Pulled Apart By Horses were living up to the hype with bruises, blisters and glee.
