65 Days Of Static @ Brudenell Social Club
By Graham Mears
Aaah the all dayer. The closest thing you get to a mini festival, and with a rather interesting 8 band bill scheduled for the Tasty Fanzine event, the Brudenell Social Club seems to be slowly buzzing with prospect for the bands to come. The clock rolls around to 4pm and openers Blind Jackson take to the stage with the usual indie rock attire and unfortunately seem to create the usual indie rock sounds. The musics strung well with great use from the keyboardist interfacing with the guitars, with the frontman staggering around the microphone accordingly in time but you'd feel without the keys the band wouldn't really have anything to offer at all.
Bracing Ed take to the stage next and proceed to play the same two minute song fifteen times. At first the loud blaring from the guitars mixed with the Cobain esque screams from the singer work, but after five minutes much of the crowd that didn't know the band before the gig are back at the bar, and those who are still listening are wishing for the end. Variety is badly needed and Falconetti who step up next give it to the crowd in huge doses. After first starting with a beautiful instrumental track which builds up using the bass as vitally as the guitar, two more members step up; a female vocalist and a trumpeter, the latter working brilliantly with the rhythm section to create a moody yet epic number which the strong vocals manage to soar the song into the very back of the venue. The band manage to bewilder the crowd with a brilliantly creative instrumental bash along to samples of Public Enemy's "When I get to Arizona" and the rest of the set seems to finish all but too quickly, with the creativity oozing from all corners. The band had seemingly taken a hiatus before, hopefully they'll be back for a while longer yet.
The Brudenell starts to fill a bit more and suddenly there's a crowd on the dance floor waiting in anticipation for the next act which is oddly... a man in a rabbit costume playing old school Nintendo theme tunes. Pixel! Pixel! Pixel! is probably the most bizarre act in Leeds at the moment and as soon as he takes to the stage the crowd instantly laugh and cheer along as he plays such classics as the Super Mario and Zelda theme tunes. In between songs he "shows off his laptop" and manages to dance about the stage like the robotic rabbit he is. The entertainment comes from the humor as much as the bizarre music, with the whole act basically consisting of his laptop and bizarre synthesiser playing, genius to the students, bewildering to pretty much anyone else.
Eiger find an interesting act to follow, but suddenly tear people's attention from the venue with white noise blaring from every corner of the stage. They manage to combat the drums with the guitars brilliantly, and although rather reminiscent of bands like Beecher at times, the band create many moments of creativity with the instruments provided and the levels of noise they are given (which reminds me to bring some ear plugs next time). The frontman manages to achieve more with his voice than just scream and amongst the singing and shouting you often get spoken words among the quieter moments, although a whole set of this does tire, the right idea's there.
I had heard many different things about ˇForward, Russia! and was rather perplexed when straight away they belt into a tremendous opener after the drummer briefly shouts and then the guitars twang in and out of chaos. Unfortunately the vocals seem to be rather out most of the band's set, although the frontman had mic troubles. ˇForward, Russia! have their moments with little spites of genius shooting out of the amplifiers but at times you think you're watching a toned down Jarcrew tribute act, with the vocals really just screeching for the sake of it. I think perhaps tonight's not their night.
Excitement starts to gather five minutes after ˇForward, Russia! leave the stage with the dancefloor clearing and making away for a drum kit and two enormous amps. That Fucking Tank take their positions but only after the guitarist takes his trousers off and reveals the pants. Someone shouts out Lightning Bolt's done it before, but as the drummer quickly replies "we're not Lightning Bolt" they begin to prove it, creating tremendously unbelievable noise that sounds a lot more looped and organised than you would expect with only two members. The band constantly looking at each other in glee whilst the guitarist manages to contort his body in all manner of ways to the unhinged noise that bleeds out of both amps. After the shirt comes off and we're left looking at a near naked man twitching his body back as quickly as his fingers on the fretboard. The band manage to continuously stagger stomping songs again and again until furiously beating the crowd gathered closely around to death with distortion. The look on the mainly confused faces say it all, they'd never be a big draw but for the few dancing around, That Fucking Tank have just provided the most entertaining fuzzy noise you're likely to hear in a while.
And all that's left is Sheffield electronic rock quartet 65 Days Of Static who due to time constraints manage to run around the stage desperately trying to sort out a flurry of problems that they've encountered including broken strings and faulty wires. Unfortunately for them they never seem to recover and with the few songs they have chance to play they don't get chance to properly get their music over to the largely unimpressed crowd. In fine form they're unbeatable but tonight they manage to remain satisfactory, still managing to storm about the stage aptly, but not really showing their worth.
The result of tonight has really been that there's enough exciting and alternative bands in Leeds, and whether they're dressed in bunny costumes, speaking and screaming within seconds or flopping about the venue like a naked fish, it all sounds good anyway.
