Dionysus @ Feast & Firkin
By Dave SugdenTonight sees the coming together of a trio of Leeds bands, including newcomers Living Thing, recent winners of the Bright Young Things 2000 competition Insense, and headliners Dionysus, the relative veterans on the night. Around thirty people are established in the Feast & Firkin's new venue for the indie-folk duo of LIVING THING. Living Thing played their usual competent and accomplished set, including recent self-released "Autonomy", finished with their latest song "Antidote" and basically set up the audience for the rest of the night. Its a little bit of a shame for Living Thing as the crowd almost doubles as they are finishing, as Leeds' latest band to hit the headlines, Insense, take to the stage.
INSENSE were recently crowned with the title of National Bright Young Things 2000 champions, but although they are a very good band I really couldn't see why. I only guessed that perhaps the judges included a number of 'past masters' of the national scene, for you see Insense play their Manchester rock as if it really were the early 1990's. And they would have gone down a treat back then as they played it to a tee, very good. The only difference was that they managed to add in their own style of atmospheric guitars, a bit of originality, and during their second song they even took a ska break. The following quote describes their set exactly ... I went downstairs mid-set and was approached by someone who said, "Is there a Stone Roses tribute band playing up there?". Perfect description. Just as I said earlier, a very good band but I just couldn't see the originality to warrant being "Bright Young Things".
Finally, tonight's headliners take to the stage. DIONYSUS are by far the best band tonight. They sound like they've played together for a while, they have a great stage presence, they have originality in their music and they rock! They even switched roles mid-set to become a four-piece and then a three-piece. This didn't have any effect on the performance, though! Brilliant. Tonight we witnessed three really good bands, all from Leeds, and we all had a really good night.
