The Lodger @ Brudenell Social Club
By Will Ridge
People teemed like ants from the early evening into the comfort of the Brudenell Social Club - one of Leeds' best loved venues. On this warm summer evening the Broody was taken over by the NCM rehearsal and recording rooms of Hyde Park as they showcase an impressive array of talent from their stable of bands. So far so good - A packed audience, cheap beer, good company and excellent music throughout the evening, away from the world cup, and despite a tropical heat and humidity. All organised by the main men of NCM - Ben, Paddy and Squiddy.
The Manhattan Love Suicides, blasted through a 15 minute nuts and bolts set. The band bristled with an image and swagger of attitude, from the angular, overly tall bassist to the Guinness swigging lead singer. All this falls into place with a MBV like dollop of punky, fuzz guitar dirge, and gently muffled lyrics.
The Chiara L's clearly brought a large portion of this crowd. Early in their set you can see why. The band hang around Chiara, the charismatic, confident, lead singer, fantastically evocative of a Echobelly's Sonya - though while her image is all well thought out retro- kitsch, the rest of the band look a bit more pub quiz. The poppy set is laced throughout with excellent, choppy guitars alternating loud and quiet in the vein of Echobelly, or Sleeper. The crowd hollered, cheered and clapped, and by the end were clearly won over. Job done!
Downdime, the penultimate band have, according to a source of mine the 'maddest lead singer here'. He towered above the band and must be at least 100 feet high, in charisma, if not stature, donned all in red, grappling with his axe. The set alternates with bursts of tune and towering white noise in a White Stripes fashion. Between songs the band had the temerity to advertise a party at their house, perversely they didn't actually tell us where that house was. The bastards.
By the point the headliners of the evening - The Lodger, started the crowd was looking a little thin, most of the audience having made a Brudenell breakout to escape the heat and into town for the rest of the night. With a new line-up bedded in around main man lead singer/vocalist Ben the band treated us to a tight set of lo-fi, left handed pop, in the ilk of Graham Coxon post Blur. Despite a less then rapturous crowd reaction they blasted through a fine set of acidic stories of the trials and tribulations of life in 21st century Northern England - including "Many Thanks for Your Honest Opinion", and "You Got Me Wrong".
So, by the end of the evening those left over tumbled back out of the haven of the Bruddy into the warm night air, ready for more a night of fun and frollicks (but not at Downdime's house). This was the first evening organised by the NCM Rooms - hopefully it will be the first of many!
