Weekly > Reviews
Stateless - Hi-Fi Club, Leeds
As you probably aren’t surprised to hear if you’ve read any of my drunken rambles and rants before, the night didn’t actually start off at the gig, life and reading my reviews are never that simple you should know that!
Tonight started midway through the afternoon really when I was frantically trying to find someone to cover a gig for me that i’d only found out i’d got tickets for the night before (not this one, I was always coming to see Stateless). Several phone calls and frantic text messages later and I had two new reviewers courtesy of friends of a friend, which meant at least I got to go to the gig I intended to and my contacts were all kept happy!
Things then take an upward turn as my long running attempt to find a venue in Leeds to host some one off club nights, finally bears fruit, Milo’s it is and it couldn’t be working out better, so after a quick meeting in there to discuss the hows and whens (more details to follow on this folks don’t worry, just not in this review) and it’s off to meet mates for beers.
Now this does mean that i’m missing the first few acts on at the Tea Time Shuffle, a novel idea for a club where by they get bands to play between 6pm and 10pm once a month on a Friday, clever when you think about it with the amount of people that are in town after work etc. So my apologies to If I Ran The Circus, Idiot Savant and The Minority as I miss all of them.
I do however get in to the venue in plenty of time to see one of the support acts though and Ali Whitton & The Broke Record Players are really good, it’s folk style guitar rock with real heart and some very competent playing and both of us enjoy it, providing a nice warm up for the main act.
Stateless are a band that I spent a large part of last year telling everyone who would listen (so not that many people really) to get onto them as some day in the near future they are going to be massive. I still stand by that summary of them and seeing them tonight does nothing to convince otherwise.
One of the rare people that did actually take my advice is with me tonight and it’s fair to say that when leaves he’s now fully converted to all things Stateless to the point of saying that he’d like to watch them in some strange European venues, i’m not sure it will happen just yet but I share his enthusiasm and praise for the band.
- Stateless
- Hi-Fi Club, Leeds (4th April 2008)
- Category: Live
- Label: K7
- Support: Ali Whitton & The Broke Record Players + The Minority + Idiot Savant + If I Ran The Circus
- Reviewed by: Kev
- Published on: 07 Apr 2008
- Comments: 0
- Beat Surrender Rating:
Weblinks
Add to favouritesTonight can’t have been easy for them either, coming hot on the heels of their friend Jason Rae’s tragic death the gig is a homage to him. They start off with two stripped down numbers, before being joined onstage by their electronic section. As good a rock band as they are without them (and believe me they are very good), it’s when the two elements fuse together that they become the fully powereful and effecting band that you know they can be.
All great bands need an enigmatic talisman at the front and Stateless have got one in Chris James, he’s intense and stalks the stage while he sings, pouring every ounce of emotion out of his body as if he’s ringing a wet cloth dry, vocally he’s spot on as always. If you don’t here this band belting out across the airwaves over the next 18 months i’ll be amazed.
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