Local dream and dark wave band Lines of Flight successfully launched their album ‘Hosts of Nowhere’ on Saturday night at The Attic in Leeds, to friends, family – and in one case, a very long-distance fan who had travelled from France specifically for the show.
While it’s not unheard of for people to travel across countries and borders to see some of the biggest acts on the planet, when it turns out that the person who’d spent the majority of the show for all three bands at the front of the stage absorbing everything, had headed over the Channel to catch this gig for a relatively little-known Leeds band, it was a definite surprise.
That though, isn’t to say that Lines of Flight don’t deserve that kind of support; they do. A tight live band with two really good vocalists, songs that will have your foot tapping and head nodding along, the singers Matthew Henderson and Helen Whale may have met and formed the project during Covid, but since then they have expanded to a five piece with Caris Shekell (bass), Owen Radford-Lloyd (synths) and Tom Surman (drums) and they’ve clearly worked hard to hone their sound into a very well-rounded live act.
To launch their new album (available on CD, digital and for pre-order now on vinyl via Bandcamp), the band have chosen one of the newer event spots in the City, certainly in its current guise anyway. The Attic arrived onto the music scene following the closure of the former Sheaf Street multi-purpose venue and I couldn’t think of a more suitable place for it.
The gig space holds around 125 people and, pleasingly, it’s around three-quarters full, exposed brickwork and white string lights with a high ceiling and long stage. This combined with the shape of the room give it a cosy, casual, New York loft feel and just as importantly, the sound and view is good wherever you stand. It’s quickly becoming one of my favourite venues for these size gigs in the City.
Opening the night are friends of the headliners The New Mysteries, whose only other gig previously saw a role reversal in the slots between them and Lines of Flight. It’s an extremely niche concept that they have formed around. They see themselves as the imaginary house band at The Bang Bang Bar (aka TheRoadhouse’) in the fictional town of Twin Peaks, WA, with their music exploring themes and characters from Twin Peaks: The Return, David Lynch’s acclaimed 2017 reboot of the cult show.
With scenes from the show playing on a large projector behind the band, snippets of sound from the show and the odd direct cover in the set, it immediately helps to tie the theme together and it’s not a total leap to imagine them as the band they imagine in the TV drama. It’s an enjoyable set, with piano, guitar and vocals forming the songs into great cohesion.
Following them in the main support slot are The State of Georgia, a seven-piece band built around the incredibly strong vocals of Georgia Jakubiak and relative veterans with 5 albums behind them to date.
Their sound is unashamedly influenced by the 1980’s. They somehow find the perfect middle ground between the upbeat new romantic sound of that era and the big ballads and production that dominated the charts, without ever veering too far towards either. The song ‘Punching’ is a definite highlight, with the backing vocalists all timing their arm punches in sync to the lyrics – and ‘Clutching At Straws’ and massive closer ‘Queen Boudica’ are also high points in an entertaining set.
Tonight is all about Lines of Flight and for a few seconds you wonder if things are going to go as planned. They start the set with ‘Crush’, one of seven songs from the new record, but part way through, the backing track cuts out and after a brief, nervous wait they get it working again and pick up the threads of the song, building to a bassline that Peter Hook would be proud of.
That early technical issue isn’t allowed to define their evening. Instead, they push through a catalogue of songs that have a dark synth undercurrent to them. Tracks like the driving ‘I Remember Everything’ and the moodier ‘Open Plains’ give nods to earlier work by The Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and those are good reference points to be coming from.
On those tracks, Henderson confidently takes the lead vocals, but it’s on Distant Warnings that you start to see that they are blessed with two really good singers, Whale takes the lead on this one, with Henderson only joining on distorted backing vocals, but my personal highlight of the night comes next on ‘White Orchids’. Compared with the rest of the set, which is jaunty and darkly exuberant, it’s a cleverly placed song that acts as the mid-point of the gig. It’s a real change of pace in both the music and the vocals as Whale delivers a beautiful vocal performance on a sparser background and Henderson acknowledges his bandmate’s performance, with arms outstretched pointing to her when the song finishes.
After that slower interlude, the pace is picked back up again for the remaining four songs. They go rockier on ‘Celilo Falls’ and marry that to the catchy refrain “I never wanted it to come to this” but it’s the closing track Edgelands that steals this section for me. As a track, it takes you on a real ride, one minute twinkling, the next pounding as it builds to a fittingly grand finale and a song that ends the evening in majestic style.
The crowd clap and shout for more and while the band do return to the stage, it’s only to thank people again coming and supporting them. They’d been clear on the timings pre-gig that they wouldn’t be doing an encore and while it would definitely be deserved, I admire them for sticking to that. Looking towards the front of the audience, it looks as if our Gallic guest has thoroughly enjoyed herself. Sometimes long journeys for short bursts of great entertainment really are worth it and tonight Lines of Flight certainly were.
Photography by Jazz Jennings. Main image: Lines of Flight.
