The Beat Surrender

Having supported the Sunshine Underground as special guests of theirs on tour earlier this year and now with two limited edition 7” (and download of course) singles under their belt, it feels like The Hair are really starting to make some progress.

The scene in Leeds is probably as congested as it’s ever been at the moment and while it probably hasn’t yet produced the types of bands that will be mentioned in fifteen to twenty years time in the same way it’s rival across the pennines have, with the likes of The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays, it’s still churning out a succession of brilliant bands.

Luckily for us, tonight see’s two of the bands that are most likely to break through next, with both headliners The Hair and Stateless looking like good tips for the next twelve months. Before we get onto them though it’s The Officers who are taking to the stage first, Rick Witter is in the crowd to see these (I think), so i’m hoping they are gonna be good.

Musically they are, plenty of energy, very good guitar and a swagger about the songs that reminds you in many ways of Kasabian. The problem I have is with the lead songers vocals. They just don’t seem strong enough for the music and i’m left seriously underwhelmed. The closing number is as rock lore has it, a big epic with more bass behind it than any of the other tracks, it’s the best they play by a mile.

Stateless are second on the bill and could quite easily be headlining, they’ve just released a fantastic debut album that seems to be the missing link between the angst rock of Radiohead and the beats and electronics of Massive Attack. I wasn’t sure how they’d pull it off live, I needn’t have worried though, the intensity of singer Chris James is unbelievable and he still delivers note perfect vocals.

The thing that really helps to lift Stateless above the rest of the rock crowd is Kidkanevil who throws in a bit of turntable magic and the odd sample. The same in many ways could be said of tonights headliners The Hair, yes the whole band is getting tighter with each gig i’ve seen, but the main axis of the band for me is two pronged. Neil Clark is an amazing extra for the band with his use of samplers and keys along with percussion, the second part is the lead singer Sam Robson.

Off stage he looks like a mild mannered, affable bloke who could probably hold his own about football and politics in equal measure. The moment he walks on stage though he changes. Gone is the placid smiling Sam, in comes rock Sam, he’s got weapons and he isn’t afraid to use them. He plays his guitar with absolute ferocity that gives the tracks far more urgency and energy live than they have managed to capture on two very good records still, the vocals are sung, yelled and spat out at times as if he’d been told he’d got this one song to prove himself and that’s it.

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