Midweek in Leeds and it was time to get excited and go get ourselves a healthy dose of rock courtesy of Editors and the accompanying openers, Indie rockers Coach Party.
As the house lights dimmed there was a healthy gathered ensemble in the crowd ready for Coach Party, and they were not about to be disappointed. The set had it all, angst ridden rockier numbers such as ‘FLAG’, ballad-esque tracks from the likes of ‘Always Been You’ and ‘Sweetheart’ and an absolute killer rendition of ‘Parasite’ which really allowed Norris and Eastwood to inject a massive dose of controlled pandemonium into the building. All too quickly it was time for the band to depart. With them, they left us with the lasting impression that we were surely going to see bigger and better things from this troupe. With so many similarities to the Courtney Love driven Hole live show back in the height of the grunge era, it was a notion that I simply just couldn’t eradicate out of my mind.
As the time drew ever closer for the headliners, the crowd had swollen massively and the building was pretty much bursting at the seams with eager revellers waiting to catch their first glimpse of the British rockers and without further adeus the band hit the stage and didn’t relent one iota throughout the whole set. Smith was an enigma, front and centre, charismatic and powerful in equal measures, delivering the vocals with faultless and inspiring craftsmanship. We were treated to a cover of the Adamski classic ‘Killer’ which was passionate and emotive while the tour debut outing of ‘Hallelujah’ was mesmerising, the strings and percussion joining in unity to deliver an absolutely epic result.
The set was decorated with highlights such as ‘Blood’, ‘Papillon’ and the colossal ‘An End Has A Start’, the evening even included my own personal favourite ‘Strange Intimacy’, an exhilarating and attention commanding version from the opening chords to the closing bars.
The pride from each faction of the band was clear for all to see and the energy bestowed on the Leeds faithful was impressive and commendable, each word of the set was delivered back at the band tenfold, clearly an evening which had been etched into everyone’s calendar for months and I’m sure that this may not have been a date in isolation for many of the fans, I’m sure that with this amount of passion and love for the band it may be a tour of multiple dates, not only for the band but also some of the fans in residence tonight.
An evening of quality rock delivered with beauty, power and out and out decadence. Bravo
