Yesterday saw me venture into Leeds with my mate Dave for a day at the Across the Tracks
The first impressions weren’t great as the festival venue itself wasn’t too impressive and there was no grass which I personally feel is an essential part of the festival experience but there you go, anyway I soon got over it (once I’d had my first beer) and got down to enjoying the music that was on offer.
The first band I saw were music festival which was held on a very small patch of land and inside Granary Wharf underneath Leeds train station.This et Al who were, well average, to be fair the acoustics in the cave like setting of the indoor stage weren’t the best and although the songs sounded vaguely familiar they were nothing out of the ordinary and I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again. More impressive were Pigeon Detectives who also graced the indoor stage and seemed to have a bit more about them, although the manner of the lead singer was a bit grating. A few of their tracks went down well and I’d definitely be keen to hear more than the half hour set that I did.
After that we headed for the main stage, a good 20 yards away, but more importantly outside of the oppressive heat suffered under the railway arches. The first band we saw were The Young Knives, the most striking thing about this lot was the fact they dressed like Weezer. A couple of their songs were OK, but nothing special and the band’s attempts at on stage banter and connecting with the crowd were painful, at least they have plenty to work on I suppose.
Following them on the main stage was Jose Gonzalez for me the best thing about him is the fact that he’s got a Spanish sounding name and after a few songs that just seemed to merge into one we’d had enough and headed back to the indoor stage. The sort of easy-listening, “chill-out” music he plays does have it’s place but it’s not really my sort of thing and definitely not what I want from live music, for me music has to have a bit more about it and the music of Black Wire certainly had that. The lead singer’s stage antics suggested he fancied himself as a cross between Mick Jagger and Jarvis Cocker and, while he is neither, the music was pretty good and I’d reccommend them looking for something new to listen to, no doubt they’ll be on myspace.
After that it was back to the mainstage and The Bees, this was the first band of the day that I had a bit of knowledge of and they were largely entertaining with their a bit of psychedelic sound
with a bit of sixties pop thrown in for good measure. The song that got the crowd going was Chicken Payback which I recognised from some advert or other but, as I don’t watch much TV, I can’t remember what the advert is for. As a warm-up for the main attraction of the night they were more than acceptable, and they had maracas, which earns them bonus points.
For me the main attraction of the night, although they shockingly were not headlining, were British Sea Power, this was the fourth time I have seen them and once again they didn’t disappoint, putting on a great show and playing plenty of the songs that I hoped they would. Of all the bands that played they clearly got the best reaction from their a
udience, which doesn’t come as a suprise to me, after all they were deemed good enough to support Pulp on their last big tour!!
Sea Power are well known for decorating their stage with foliage, fruit and other nature based things while they play and my night was made when they threw some of these into the crowd and I ended up with a big branch as seen picture and was just inches away from acquiring a pineapple as well. Happy, happy days even though I am aware that picture makes me look a bit retarted, it was taken by myself while I was in a state of euphoria after capturing the branch with the crappy camera on my mobile.
After BSP had finished all that were left were the Magic Numbers, who like Jose b
efore them, are a bit too MOR for my liking. The euphoria of successfully acquiring some BSP foliage managed to carry us through though, and most of the last hour or so was spent trying to fend off branch thieves, field questions from admiring fans and making lame, smutty jokes to girls enquiring about the branch such as “I’ll let you touch my bush if I can touch yours” suprisingly, these didn’t get us very far, although we did meet a nice girl who I donated a bit of my bush to. In the photo hereyou can just about see her branch sticking out of her hair under the light, I only deemed her worthy of such a prize as her boyfriend had a brilliant moustache, all other requests were strongly rejected.
Midway through the Magic Numbers set we trudged home after pledging one day we would meet up and re-unite the broken off parts of our branches, we watched the end of the gig from platform 17 of Leeds station (from where plenty of free-loaders had been watching all day) before heading back home, via a stop at Kashmir for a curry of course.
All in all it was an enjoyable day, though the choice of venue wasn’t the best and if they are going to do it again they could do with a bit more space, and a more sensible line-up, like having BSP headlining for 1 and a half hours and not the bloody Magic Numbers!
