Live Review: Girl Scout – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 06.10.23

When you think about Swedish music, where does your mind go?

Sure, there’s the rich heritage of pop (think Abba, Ace of Base) and EDM (Avicii, Swedish House Mafia). Metal too – with Sweden apparently being second only to Finland for the number of heavy metal bands per capita.

What about indie-rock though? Not so many of them listed on the Wikipedia page “Music of Sweden”. It’s refreshing then, to hear Stockholm-based four-piece Girl Scout breaking out of Scandinavia and taking on the world.

Supporting their debut EP Real Life Human Garbage, Girl Scout have hit the road this autumn, on a UK tour with Isle of Wight-based band Coach Party.

They’re making a great first impression.

A shiny start to the set with the excellent Run Me Over, quickly gets the crowd dancing. A couple of songs in and the Leeds locals have already welcomed the traveling band with a shout of “Skål!”, which lead singer Emma Jansson turns into wider audience participation and has the whole crowd shouting “Cheers” in Swedish, before the set moves on.

There’s an honesty and freshness to the songs and the motivations behind them, which helps them connect further with the crowd. “Who’s divorced?” asks Jansson, before telling us that it’s the best thing for everyone. Whatever your take on that particular discussion, Mothers & Fathers, with Viktor Spasov’s jazzy guitar riff and solo perfectly showcases how they skilfully craft an uplifting production with a challenging lyric.

The sound is great in the Brudenell, as it pretty much always is, something the band themselves have remarked upon, claiming the iconic Leeds venue is the best they’ve been in so far in the UK. A partisan crowd do not disagree as they warm even further towards a band that by now, has them in thrall.

Introduced by Jansson as “their only ballad”, Bruises feels perfectly placed in their set, a radio friendly slow groove, exquisite lyrics, delicately delivered. It allows a breather, before the band break into the home stretch of a victorious set. Monster, delivered with a harder edge than on the record, throws the crowd back into a frenzy, before closing out the set with I Just Needed You To Know, complete with an outstanding opening riff from Spasov and Do You Remember Sally Moore?

By the time they close out the set, those who were arriving a little later to see Coach Party were fully invested in Girl Scout. Although they may not have been expecting it, the reaction suggests that some could well have just discovered their new favourite band.