Tall Firs, Leeds Brudenell Social Club

September 28, 2008

The first Sunday of the new University year is an eerie time to be in Leeds’ Hyde Park. As home to a large proportion of the city’s student population, this is the first time it has slept in a week of partying as people take the opportunity to recover before education commences.

This feeling continues when entering the Brudenell Social Club for the Tall Firs gig; arriving towards the end of Gareth S. Brown‘s support slot you are presented with a nearly empty room, all eyes fixed on the spotlit source of a hauntingly complex piano melody. Swaying as though caught in a trance of his own making, Gareth is alone on a stage crowded with other musicians’ equipment, looping his keyboard and crisp effects through a laptop. With no vocals, this proficient display starts to lose some of its interest.

When he sits back to enjoy a beer, leaving his laptop to the finish the job it just does not quite work as well as when Gruff Rhys does it, perhaps because what he has created does not have the multitude of textures making to make it worthwhile. A few more people arrive in time for the next act, an unbilled guy and a guitar describing himself as the evening’s “20 per cent extra free.” A good voice, well played tunes and some good ideas fill the time well, and the room seems happy enough to enjoy his set whilst waiting for the headliners.

Tall Firs come onto the stage and for the first time in the evening people leave the comfortable seating areas and head toward the stage (one person did sit down again once there, but he was easily the most animated attendee despite this). The band does not seem to comfortable playing to such a small crowd, particularly with it being their third night in the UK and first ever in Leeds, but they soon forget this as they set to work on a set which has a riotous impact on the hardcore fans (the gentleman sat at the front).

Their schedule implies that they won’t have much time to explore Britain beyond its gig venues, and if this show proves to be typical they may return to New York feeling undeservedly unloved. Tall Firs play melodic guitar music which nods both at label boss Thurston Moore‘s other project and a more world-weary folk.

Their guitars are often distorted but focussed with lyrics summed up well by the title referencing line from their latest album opener ‘Messed Up’, “We’re not too old to get drunk but we’re too old to die young.” Rock n roll excess is still very much on the cards, but some time is needed for reflection and recovery, an idea catered for with the switching from drum led nearly-behemoths to more considered quiet ones which should perhaps lead somewhere but instead choose to sit happily on the brain.

The two front men do their best to get some crowd interaction, regaling us with stories of their journeys but the mention of the ‘life-changing’ Gang of Four experience gets nary a whoop when they must have expected such a glowing, local, name drop to send some kind of reflected adulation their way. A great show and, for £6, a pretty tremendous Sunday evening. Hopefully they can return some day soon to a more appropriately sized crowd, but for now they will have to settle for a small, appreciative crowd, with one guy who is probably still dancing around Hyde Park.

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