Category: gig reviews
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Vulfpeck live at the O2 review – panto funk collective have the key to your heart
Performing a vanishingly rare UK arena show, the lovable funk group offered plenty of light-hearted musical delights for a bouyant O2 crowd, even in the absence of founding member Theo Katzman.
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Imogen Cooper/Lewis/RNS live at the Glasshouse review – a fitting send-off
Returning to the same composer that started her career over five decades ago, Imogen Cooper’s farewell concerto was an uplifting Mozart masterclass. A nuanced 27th Concerto highlighted Cooper’s talent as one of Britain’s finest concert pianists.
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The Lemon Twigs live at Brudenell Social Club review – they just don’t make pop like this any more
Playing to a packed room on a glorious May evening in Leeds, the Twigs seemed perfectly at ease on stage for this faultless set. The grand orchestration of their new album was necessarily dialed-back, but no bother: these are some of the best-written pop rock songs this side of 1970.
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Max Cooper live at the Glasshouse review – high-tech light show beguiles and befuddles
Music plays second fiddle to visual art in Max Cooper’s impressive 3D/AD Live show, the performer partly obscured behind a screen of dazzling technicolour projections. When the shapeshifting art is the right fit for Cooper’s cerebral electronica, the result is transfixing, but this meandering show seems to be missing its guiding light.
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Florence Road live at NUSU review – viral Irish rockers are stadium bound
The buzzy Wicklow rock group have only released a handful of songs, but have already received support from a staggering array of the global music industry’s big names. This set of largely unreleased songs in Newcastle mostly justified the hype, although Flo Ro’s live offering still has plenty of room for improvement.
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WITCH live at Belgrave Music Hall review – Zamrock legends still living it large
It’s been 50 years since We Intend to Cause Havoc’s heyday as arguably Zambia’s most popular rock band, but Emanyeo Chanda and co were full of zip for this gleefully grungy Leeds set. All that was needed was a little more intentional havoc.
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Nubiyan Twist live at Digital review – soul-filling neo jazz is for humans only
Tom Excell’s Leeds collective made a thoroughly convincing argument against AI in music with this evening of unadulterated phone-free joy. The funk and soul delights lit up a dance-ready crowd in Digital, but it was the surprise EDM and punk diversions that really took the breath away.
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Searows live at Leeds Irish Centre review – minimalist atmospherics from indie folk’s new leading light
Searows’ beguiling new album provided the most compelling songs for this understated performance in Leeds. At his best, his broadly coastal-themed new songs sound windswept and epic. Other times, it’s more of a wishy-washy damp squib.
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Geese live at O2 Academy review – rock superstardom, here they come
Arguably the hottest band in the world right now, New York’s Geese arrived in Yorkshire with well deserved swagger. When hitting their stride in marvellously odd blues rock showstoppers they are a force to be reckoned with, but this set failed to capitalise on the sterling new album’s subtler material.
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Psychedelic Porn Crumpets live at NUSU review – rapid-fire riffs hit like a drug
Kick-starting their umpteenth UK tour, the Crumpets are very much a well-buttered machine these days. A strong ninth album has only bolstered their set list of precision-tooled riffs and prog rock neck-breakers. NUSU’s paltry sound system simply couldn’t keep up.
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RPO/Petrenko at the Glasshouse review – high octane Shostakovich sets the heart racing
Tom Borrow’s solidly unassuming rendition of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto was a little heavy-handed, but nonetheless a worthy scene-setter for Shostakovich’s whirlwind Tenth Symphony, a timely piece about Stalin’s authoritarian regime that sounded viscerally shocking under Vasily Petrenko’s assured baton.
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Caribou live at the Glasshouse review – symphony hall rave is a dizzying delight
Caribou’s club-focused house music proved to be a winningly unorthodox match for the refined Glasshouse concert hall, convincingly turning the auditorium into a euphoric nightclub complete with a spectacular light show. Dan Snaith’s live drumming propelled his best songs to new heights, but his more light-footed electronica tracks felt a little bland by comparison.
Undertone 