Having seen the wonderful Blind Shake earlier this year – I thought “If they’re supporting Thee Oh Sees, they must be brilliant!” There’s been a lot of talk about how good Thee Oh Sees are live (mainly by Marc Riley on 6Music) and I’m here to tell you….it’s all true……believe the hype!

Having spent the afternoon in ‘Greenfield’ at Mikes stag do (heavy rain stopped the crown green bowling so it was snooker, darts and dominos) I met up with Foggy who’d come over to Leeds from Warrington for the gig, Sledge, Ana Luisa and Steve. Things started well with a set from ‘Magnetix‘ who thundered through their set with hugh enthusiasm. A theme that was to infuse the evening.

The Blind Shake were on fire – merciless drumming from Dave Roper (often standing up he was so into it) with the Blaha Brothers abusing their guitars to the max – kicking out, playing a sweaty noisey wigged out surf rocking set – Loved them!

‘How’s anyone going to top that!’ I thought….then Thee Oh Sees stared with their 2 drummers up front and centre and, oh my – what followed was a masterclass in fast, unrelenting, musical joy! Everyone around me was jumping around with big smiles on their faces and the crowd surfers had a field day. Chief Oh See-er, John Dwyer, holds his guitar high up on his chest and often looks like he’s using it as a rifle – this machine kills factiousness…..

Gig of the year? Yeah – gig of the year!

Bob the Chiropodist

When you click with someone’s music, it’s a precious thing. Why we click is different from band to band – maybe you saw them do an amazing set, your big brother brought home their LP one day, you’ve heard it so much that it seeped into you without you realising, your mate put a track of theirs on a compilation tape……..or, more often than not……you heard them late one night on the John Peel show. My love affair with LOW started 17 years ago with the latter. Thankfully they’re still making wonderful LPs and thankfully still touring.

It was the bass sound that first drew me to them and it’s usually that and the combination of Alan and Mimi’s voices that (rightly) gets commented on when the band is discussed. That ying and yang of male and female is sublime, but it’s the combination of it all their parts that just fits so well. I chose Mimi for the drummer in my ultimate quims band at the last meeting and watching her tonight, wish I’d have pushed harder. Deceptively simple, but so effective.

Tonight we were treated to two intense sets of spine tingling, breath taking, intense emotion from their wonderful back catalogue. Oldies like Sunflower sneaked in amongst the newer stuff. There was quiet reverence in the crowd until half-way through the 2^nd set when the deranged guitar solo at the end of ‘Pissing’ had the place in uproar, causing someone to shout out with joy and the banter started “We never thought we’d be doing it this long, it’s a real privilege to be able to play our songs” – some one shouts “That gave me a hard on” “Well….playing up here can be like having a hard on…. Sometimes you feel embarrassed about letting go in public….but it feels pretty good…” Them Mimi stepped in “Erm, our kids are backstage so can we keep it PG!”

Near the end there was a beautiful cover of ‘Let’s Stay Together’ that surly must be released as a single. I wish I could have bottled the evening up to have a nip from it whenever I needed some adult gravitas in a world of flimsy pop. A heroic effort from 3 beautiful mavericks. Come back soon.

Bob the Chiropodist