Live at Leeds 2017: Festival Review

In the popular imagination, the phrase Live at Leeds is always going to evoke memories of The Who’s legendary 1970 recording at the University’s Refectory, but the festival that shares its name is unequivocally a forward-facing affair, aiming to showcase primarily new acts across the city.

And Live at Leeds really is a city-wide affair, too, taking full advantage of the healthy complement of venues that West Yorkshire’s biggest metropolitan centre has to offer. This stretches from live circuit staples like the O2 Academy on Cookridge Street, the University of Leeds’ Stylus and the Students’ Union at Leeds Beckett University to cutting-edge attic spaces at the newly-opened likes of Headrow House and Belgrave Music Hall, all the way up to, in the northern inner-city suburbs, the much-loved Brudenell Social Club. This year, the ticket exchange and press office are based at the First Direct Arena. It’s perhaps not too wild to suggest that it might one day host its own shows at this festival before too long.

With the lineup’s big hitters spread across the day this year, there’s already a lengthy queue snaking from the Academy down Park Row as three o’clock approaches; White Lies, who’ve headlined this venue in their own right in the past, are among the early entertainment there. Last year’s fourth LP from the Londoners, Friends, was an album hugely indebted to the eighties in terms of its predilection for synths and melodic pop. A slew of material from that record, including the fist-pumping single There Goes Our Love Again, sits surprisingly comfortably alongside choice cuts from the back catalogue, particularly those from their gloomy, post-punk debut To Lose My Life... In time-honoured fashion, Bigger Than Us – a track that the word ‘anthemic’ doesn’t quite do justice to – brings the curtain down on an hour-long set.

Across town at the Brudenell, meanwhile, the focus is very much on sounds of the near future, rather than those already established. In the Games Room of a venue that’s probably best described as a rock and roll version of the club from Phoenix Nights, an early evening set from London’s Geowulf proves one of the day’s hidden gems. The boy-girl duo have attracted superficial comparisons to the likes of Beach House and School of Seven Bells but as their Live at Leeds turn proves, they’re actually a much poppier proposition than either. Vibrant single Saltwater is the standout.

In the main room next door, Geowulf are swiftly followed by FREAK, with an offering considerably less laid-back than what the Games Room just bore witness to. The stage name of Chelmsford’s Connar Ridd, and fleshed-out to a three-piece onstage, they deliver a short-but-sweet set that fizzes through his debut EP and a handful of unreleased cuts.

Ridd has run the gamut already in terms of his musical tastes, from uploading covers of the likes of Alicia Keys and System of a Down to having previously been in a death metal trio with his brother, and what he’s now turning out as FREAK is, on this evidence, somewhere between the two, tapping into the melodic approach of Nirvana but with a sound considerably more caustic. Surely the loudest band the Brudenell played host to all day.

The club is separated from Leeds city centre proper by a considerable chunk of the University of Leeds’ campus, and it’s down at the Students’ Union at around 7pm that Honeyblood’s extensive touring schedule in support of last year’s tremendous sophomore album, Babes Never Die, continues. When Cat Myers replaced Shona McVicar behind the kit in between their self-titled debut LP and its follow-up, her physical playing style brought a different dynamic entirely to the Scottish duo’s live presence. That continues tonight, with a set that includes a clutch of the more atmospheric tracks from Babes Never Die – new single Walking at Midnight among them – but aims primarily for the uptempo, from the scintillating Ready for the Magic to old favourites Killer Bangs and All Dragged Up.

Around the corner is another newcomer to the Live at Leeds scene, Church, which opened late last year and has not chosen its simple moniker in an attempt to be cheeky or ironic – it’s precisely what it says on the tin, a live space in the converted, deconsecrated Trinity St. David’s on Woodhouse Lane. At nine o’clock, Selkirk’s own Frightened Rabbit rock up for a headlining turn, and immediately voice suspicions that the nonetheless-healthy turnout might have been bitten into by the slot’s clash with a couple of rowdy up-and-comers playing the Academy at the same time. 

“Have you all left the kids at the Slaves concert, then?” jokes frontman Scott Hutchison. “Saves you getting a babysitter, I suppose.” Last year’s superb fifth LP, Painting of a Panic Attack, is well-represented, with classics like Old Old Fashioned, The Modern Leper and Keep Yourself Warm – the latter elusive on recent setlists – also making the cut. There’s a rare outing for Sings the Greys’ Square 9, too, and appropriately given the surroundings, Acts of Man closes us out. Given that last year was often characterised by intra-band turbulence, it’s terrific to see Frabbit back and firing on all cylinders.

Live at Leeds is still in its relative infancy and there’s no question that there’s some teething problems to be ironed out, such as the ludicrous spiking of drink prices at the non-Brudenell venues (£5+ for a pint of warm lager at the Academy, negligible change from £4 for a small bottle of Punk IPA at Church). It’s frustrating, too, that the headliners couldn’t have been better spaced out across the day, White Lies-style, to avoid obvious clashes – the overlap between Frightened Rabbit and Wild Beasts is a major one. In terms of its scale, ambition and healthy championing of new music, though, Live at Leeds is to be applauded; here’s to 2018.