The Sheffield Scenester

Having recently reviewed their EP, and to be fair I did love it, I was looking forward to seeing The Kavaliers play live to see if they could transfer their intelligent multi-layered sound to a live set. Undaunted by the prospect of playing to a near empty room they jumped straight in with a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ attitude! Knocking out songs like ‘She’s Alright’ with its fast heavy sound thumping in my head, Tom Statham’s vocals backed as they were by some excellent guitar courtesy of Paul Beel, came through strong, confident and most importantly clear! Taking a break from their own material – pity really because it more than holds its own – they did a Stone Roses cover which blended in with their sound effortlessly before returning with the tracks off their EP including my favourite ‘Times the Key’ all of which sounded even better live. Finishing the set off with another cover of The Who’s classic ‘My Generation’ – without the stammer I might add – it was obvious for the few that had gathered to see them that they still enjoyed performing live, albeit to a depleted audience. With an incredibly mature sound their songs were both strong and self-assured leaving you craving more, my only piece of criticism would be that Paul needs a back up guitar as at times retuning did seem to bring the set to a bit of a standstill, on the bright side though the wait was worth it especially when it came to playing ‘I Can Take You There’ with its skuzzy riff laden rhythm, definitely an act that I’ll catch again.

Next on the agenda was Barnsley based Dirty Jeans who started their set in grand style with an introductory recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (which season I’m not sure!) but this led straight into their opening track ‘Part 2’. By now of course quite a reasonable throng of people had gathered including one guy dressed head to toe in some kind of orange body suit! Every song of theirs was full of driving punk riffs delicately laced with an exotic blend of indie ska and all out fun, the crowd, obviously familiar with their work, loved every minute. With banter flying between crowd and band this was rapidly turning into one of the most enjoyable sets I’ve witnessed in a while. One track happily flowed seamlessly into another without that age old problem of sounding the same; both Katie and Gareth Barnes took to the mic bringing cheers from the crowd at every occasion. It would be hard to pick a favourite track as I found myself swept up in the general euphoria surrounding me but if I was to pick a winner it would have to be ‘She’s Got’, preceded by an audio clip from the film Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, it was carried along by a great blues bass line while Katie’s voice sailed across brilliantly. During all this the ‘tango’ dude could be seen crowd surfing all around the floor, but this was just a taste of things to come as on the final track ‘Shoot The Sky’ virtually the entire room joined in by doing the pogo and chanting for an encore - now that’s how you end a set!!

How do you follow that? Well that job fell to The Spires whose take on an electro based indie rock format wasn’t quite what the crowd were ready for, but to be fair they were still riding on the fun filled rapture of the previous set. The opening track ‘Honestly’ began with a resonating intro before dropping into a steady beat driven rock number, that for some reason reminded of a quality Bond movie theme, one of those ‘the action is about to get serious’ tunes. It was obvious from the outset that singer Matt Smith was having a hell of a time doing everything possible, short of diving into the crowd to get their attention. But it wasn’t until they played, what for me is their best track, ‘Lion’s Den’ that the crowd finally broke and began dancing along with its near hypnotic jungle beat and rousing chorus. Easily a track that sticks in your mind, this was followed by another couple of quality sound laden tracks all heavily dosed with influences from the likes of Joy Division and The Killers. Whilst obviously serious in both writing and delivery they still strive to entertain at the fun filled level the expectant crowd had come to hear. This is in no way a bad reflection on them, it just seemed like this was a case of the wrong time and place!

Finally we came to The Harringtons, a self proclaimed happy indie group from Barnsley and judging by the way the crowd had swelled they’d brought half of Barnsley with them as well. Opening with the Kasabian influenced track ‘Echoes’ the crowd instantly started moshing and from here on it was mayhem all the way. Blatantly taking their cue from the Manchurian scene they tore through a variety of brilliant songs with swirling guitars, pounding drums, slashing cymbals and thumping bass. The set really pushed the envelope by taking us from great to amazing to outstanding with every track, and like Dirty jeans before the crowd found themselves swept along once more. Stopping to introduce us to Clayton who was dragged on stage “cos he’s helping out tonight”, Clayton then promptly disappeared while we were treated to an acoustic number ‘Straight From The Heart’ (I hope I got the name right) written by lead guitarist Jake, which I have to say with the crowd in such a elated state was a pretty ballsy change of tact – but at least we got a bit of a breather. Then came the brilliant ‘Velvet Rising’ followed closely by the echoing guitar riff and military tattoo like drum work of Danny Hartshorne of another crowd favourite ‘Your Star Will Shine’, playing out like New Order meets Embrace. We were then asked the question “Any Requests?” which received a huge cheer from the crowd as both band and fans knew what was coming next, their signature tune ‘Set In Our Ways’, this was the cue for an unbridled all out mosh-pit. With a fantastic end to an exuberant evening these guys deserve all the success that comes their way.

It has to be noted that I missed seeing Twisted Wheel, one of my favourite bands of recent years who were playing at The Leadmill, so I could catch this gig and do I regret that decision? After tonight’s show the answer is a resounding no, I was thoroughly entertained with some fresh young acts that have a lot to offer the music industry, so if you get the chance catch them live, you’ll not regret it!

Words/Photos Geoff Buckthorpe