Live At Leeds 2010
Various Venues, Leeds
01/05/2010

Put on some comfy shoes and grab an umbrella, it’s time for Live At Leeds 2010.  Like the Camden Crawl, it involves running from venue to venue to catch the best acts and anyone from Leeds will know the weather is bound to be temperamental.  While the sun’s still shining, Little Black Hearts’ cheeky chappy attitude and palatable guitar rock has drawn a crowd to Nation Of Shopkeepers.  They’re the first local act we see and very different from endearing singer-songwriter Sam Airey who we catch next at The Cockpit, accompanied by cello and glockenspiel. 

Over in The Cockpit’s other room, Sheffield noisemakers Rolo Tomassi are preparing to rip the place to shreds. However it’s a little early in the day for their disjointed hardcore and more to our tastes is Wilder’s sunny indie-pop. They hook us with instantly enjoyable melodies and lots of cartoon-like facial expressions from singer Sam Craven, meaning we almost miss the whole of The Neat’s set over at one of the Leeds University venues.  It seems that this first signing to the Kaiser Chiefs’ new Chewing Gum record label has drawn a curious crowd.  Lots of appreciative head-bobbing is going on in time with the beat that’s behind Shane McCauley’s gritty Mark E Smith meets Bob Dylan vocals.  However they’re very tame compared to Castrovalva, but then again nearly everyone is tame compared to Castrovalva, who remind us a lot of spazzy post-hardcore types Blood Brothers but with a bit of Dizzee Rascal thrown in for good measure.  After this we calm down to The Boy Who Trapped The Sun’s beautifully forboding acoustic set, where we’re sitting on the floor at his feet, like children at storytime.

The Bronx draw one of the biggest crowds of the day and despite being ill, singer Matt Caughthran encourages the crowd to go completely nuts before the punk rockers are switched for a promising pop act, Wolf Gang.  Melodic and dapper, they’re clearly heading for commercial success but so far lack the devoted, hysterical fanbase that’s assembled to see Blood Red Shoes straight after.  Gritty and grungy, there’s a bit of The Subways and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club thrown in there somewhere and we can’t help rocking out to their latest single ‘Light It Up’.  Lastly we head over to Holy Trinity Church in the freezing cold, but miraculously no rain, to see Hurts, and as we sit in a pew whispering “wow” we realise it’s been a good day.

Justine Trickett