Everyone has their genre of music that no matter what age they are, will always be special to them at their core.
For some it’s metal, others they know in their heart of hearts it’s pop music, and for me it’s indie. I spent my youth with big messy hair, striped tees and always having an iPod Nano on me. Nothing makes me feel better than when I hear a clunky guitar line and heavy drums, so as you can imagine tonight’s line-up was heavenly.
Circa Waves embarked on their headline tour and brought some good pals along for the ride, with Peace and Corella opening the show. Leeds was once again reminded how brilliant live music can be.
I am truly grateful to Circa Waves having Peace as one of their support bands. They are the founding fathers of the “B-Town movement”. Peace sit amongst fellow bands such as Jaws, Swim Deep, Bombay Bicycle Club, Foals, Florence,(I could go on) the bands you would see in NME and be considered very cool if you featured them on your Tumblr blog. In the dawn of Instagram that EP Delicious where the artwork was a watermelon cut into the Peace sign could have only been made cooler if Alexa Chung herself was eating it.
It was so magical to see them play live. On the journey to the venue, I had their tracks on Spotify to get hyped for the show, (a practice that some fellow gig-goers are against, but I love a pre-show shuffle) I played 1998 and thought there’s no way they will play this one live. It’s instrumental lead, very heavy and amongst everything else, a whooping 10 minutes long, yet here I was witnessing this “Delicious” masterpiece – live. Peace also treated the audience to a mixture of classics such as California Daze, and Lovesick, and even teased new, unreleased music.
Now I’m not sure if Circa Waves insisted upon this, but whoever was behind the song choices that were played between bands needs a raise. It was so fun. Picture yourself in one of the most iconic music venues in Leeds. It’s only a Tuesday night, so you’ve still got some excitement that you’re out on a work night, and you’re surrounded by people singing along to “ Don’t You Want Me Baby.” The atmosphere was a bit laddish considering 70% of the audience were wearing football shirts. However, we took things to the next level by finishing the sing-along on “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers (with some Vampire Weekend before)…this stag party was ready to get going.
Even though it had felt like we had already experienced a buffet of great music (live and via a playlist), the crowd was ready for its sweet treat in the form of Circa Waves. This is a band that I’ve managed to see on support slots and festivals, so I was really looking forward to seeing what they would do with their own headline show. They were brilliant. The lighting and stage show in general set the tone for a very vibey evening. We had neon lights, light bars that were in horizontal strips across the back of the stage, and hues of green, blue, and reds throughout the night which mirrored the band’s album artwork.
Watching Circa Waves and their dedicated fans reminded me of what it was like to see Foals when I was in my early 20s in Manchester. The band had such a great energy that was bouncing back from the audience. Listening through the set list, it’s clear Circa Waves have orchestrated a high-energy show that perfectly manages to utilise and emphasise the healthy back catalogue they have, whilst still having those incredible roaring reactions and hunger from their audience for the new tracks.
When we think of songs of the summer (indie edition), T Shirt Weather by Circa Waves is up there. At one point, you couldn’t escape it, but owing to their newest releases being so good, it wasn’t the ticket track for me. (A ticket track is the song that you would feel it was worth the ticket for them to play it. E.g. Bombay Bicycle Club playing It’s Always Like This.) Let’s Leave Together from Death and Love, Pt. 1 was that big hit of the night for me.
For me, this was a great show; they ticked a lot of boxes. They played great songs, had incredible support bands and put a real spin on the typical “Yorkshire” chant by having the crowd scream Yorkshire before playing the track Move to San Francisco.
Photography by Maddie Armstrong.
