The Beat Surrender

As bad a venue as The Refectory is it does have a habit of getting very good gigs on, as it’s probably the biggest venue in Leeds as things stand. This particular gig under the banner MTV2 Spanking New Music Tour, was sold out ages ago to see four of the up and coming bands that are starting to break through over here.

First up is The Maccabees, a band i’d been hearing glowing reports of but hadn’t heard anything they’d committed to record. As their energetic yet ordinary set grows to a close, I can’t say as i’ve seen anything to impress me at all, musically they come over as slightly more art school, sub-standard Futureheads, the singer looks off his tits throughout one njot one track lasts in the memory.

In comparison Fields are a band that have had quiet recognition and a slow burning , ever growing fanbase built on a succession of live shows and a couple of glorious EPs that have wet the appetite for tonight. They don’t disappoint , they gel well on stage , the live show is less about performance and more about the music and they blow me away, the wall of noise they create even sounds good in this venue, so god knows how impressive it would sound in a small club.

Local heroes iForward Russia are up next and we get the first bout of moshing in the crowd. Every song is greeted with an enthusiastic cheer at the end, in truth though after a couple of songs their Gang of Four inspired punk/funk gets a little tiresome with every song sounding the same. For me Leeds has a number of much better bands to offer the music world than these.

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