Tramlines has got bigger and bigger since it started in 2009 so this year the main stage has moved from Devonshire Green to the much bigger Ponderosa Park and the headliners reflect the upward trajectory of what is now considered one of the best smaller festivals in the country.
Live Review: Menace Beach @ Sheffield Harley
The last band I went to see in Sheffield were The Dandy Warhols so it is quite fitting that their influence looms large in 90’s throwbacks Menace Beach. Occupying the space somewhere between The Dandy’s and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Leeds band Menace Beach strolled on stage at the Harley with little fanfare having set up the equipment themselves.
Liza Violet’s hushed vocals kicked things off with a low key rendition of Tennis Court. It took a few songs to get the sound right particularly on Ryan Needham’s vocals which is a shame because aside from that Elastics and particularly Drop Outs sounded flawless. Menace Beach are mostly indebted to 90’s alt-rock hero’s such as Pavement, Breeders and Pixies but listen hard enough and there is a hint of their English upbringing as they almost sound like Elastica or even the Boo Radleys at their poppiest moments.
By the time new song Super Transporterreum landed Menace Beach had found their range and the simple singalong chorus of that song made the crowd suitably rowdy for set highlight Taste Like Medicine.
The Harley itself is one of the most intimate venue’s in Sheffield and as well as always playing a key part in the annual Tramlines festival it has played host to such high quality acts as Courtney Barnett, Royal Blood, Drenge, Alt-J, Peace, Bastille, and of course the Arctic Monkeys in recent years. The 200 capacity venue is the perfect place for a DIY slacker band such as Menace Beach and the Yorkshire band seemed totally at home crammed in on the tiny stage.
Album opener Come On Give Up had the front rows dancing and the hook laden chorus would have had beer cans thrown across the venue were Menace Beach the kind of band to attract such a crowd. As it was they settled for some serious head nodding and feet tapping. An audience full of music geeks to watch a band who wear their alternative influence on their sleeves. You could almost smell the limited edition 7″ singles emanating from the crowd.
Set closer Lowtalkin’ works much better live than it does on the album but it still seemed an odd choice to close the evening off especially as the eponymous Ratworld remained unplayed. Ratworld is far and away Menace Beach’s best song and I was moved to confront guitarist Nick Chantler after the gig who broke the news to me that they have actually never played that song live. He took my unwanted intrusion into his life so well however that I immediately felt bad and decided to let this one go.
Like their peers Yuck, Menace Beach are probably always going to play similar sized venues to the Harley but when they fit so well in there does it really matter?
Live Review: Spector @ Sheffield Leadmill
Bill Ryder Jones was well received in support
Spector emerge a half hour later to rapturous applause and launch straight into Lately It’s You which still sounds strong after a successful airing at Glastonbury earlier this year. Starting with a slower song is always a risk but it just means that follow up Never Fade Away is even more well received than normal with the crowd hungry for the first big sing along of the night.
It’s hard to pin down a Spector crowd. Perhaps too poppy for the snobbier indie kids, and the lack of aspirational lyrics, replaced instead by forlorn longing, make Spector uncomfortable bedfellows with footy fan ‘lad’ bands such as The Enemy or Kasabian. What’s left is a strange mix of students and solicitors, trendy haircuts and Rivers Cuomo glasses, those out for a drink and a good time and the music geeks hoping to pick up a limited edition 7″. As Macpherson himself noted half way through the gig ‘the right side of the crowd know more of the words but the left side seem to be having a better time… maybe the more you listen to the album you worse time you have’.
Fred Macpherson somehow pulls off pigtails. Kind of…
A strangely subdued Bad Boyfriend is the only slight low point of the gig but Stay High had the crowd bouncing again with its fist pumping anthemic chorus. Spector’s entire back catalogue is awash with fist pumping, anthemic chorus’ and it is this combined with their stage presence that makes them such a force on the live music scene.
By the time Twenty Nothing‘s bridge of ‘ONE you started coming over, TWO you started sleeping over, THREE you started taking over, FOUR YOU TOLD ME IT WAS OVER’ kicked in the crowd were completely won over and from here the show at Sheffield Leadmill became by far the best live performance from Spector I have seen.
Having witnessed Spector at both tiny Sheffield venue Queens Social Club and packing one of the bigger tents at Leeds fest, it is clear that Macpherson is at home at any level, probably as a result of continuous touring with Spector as well as with previous bands Les Incompetents and Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man. This gives Macpherson a comfortable stage presence and with the crowd on side the whole band are an engaging spectacle, particularly bassist Tom Shickle who looks like he might explode with happiness at any moment.
After the frenzied noise of Twenty Nothing, Spector slow things down with Believe, Kyoto Garden and Cocktail Party/Heads in quick succession. Cocktail Partyparticularly sounds great, and the repeated refrain outro of Heads is shouted back at the band with enthusiasm.
Then with little warning Spector drop Celestine… and the crowd loses its shit. Macpherson and Shickle are clearly impressed with the Sheffield audiences sea of utter chaos as the fans at the front sing along and those in the middle are pushed from one side to another. Having barely caught their breath it is straight into another fan favourite in Friday Night, Don’t Ever Let It End.
Using from new album Moth Boys gives the crowd time to pick up contact lenses, frantically try and find their shoes and go to the bar before Chevy Thunder makes it all kick off again for scenes usually reserved for a much heavier band with a circle pit even opening up a couple of times. After proclaiming ‘this is the longest Spector set ever’ at 17 songs, Macpherson thanks the Sheffield crowd and the fact you can tell he fucking means it makes it all the difference.
The Leadmill is perhaps Sheffield’s most iconic venue
The London band save their best moment for last however with unstoppable single ‘All The Sad Young Men’ getting the sing along treatment it deserves. Why songs such as this are ignored whilst bands like Bastille and The 1975 continue to be played everywhere is a mystery but the crowd know they have witnessed something special .
As the knackered but happy audience files out you get the feeling that Spector at Sheffield Leadmill will be a gig that both the crowd and the band remember for years to come.
Live Review: Frankie & The Heartstrings @ Doncaster Live Lounge
‘If it’s fragile
I think it’s worthwhile
And if you break on me
Well accidents happen…’
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