I had time for more...

There was indeed, more gigs whilst I was absent from Blogging. I managed to squeeze in Arab Strap at Cabaret Voltaire which, due to the intimacy of the venue if nothing, was infinitly better than the last time I saw them at the cavernous Queens Hall. The crowd were as expected, fans, presumably for a long time, Arab Strap not being a band who are suddenly about to convert any previous haters. They did rock harder than I had guessed they would however and also did a beautiful version of personal favourite, Piglet. They did not, as they never do I hear, play First Big Weekend however. Personally I don't like when bands think they are above their biggest songs and don't do them in a sort of "look what else we do" type way ( such as Oasis after Wonderwall, which they have now reintroduced into their set, doing Ryan Adams version of it may I add). If you are unfamiliar with First Big Weekend I suggest you seek it out, shouldn't be too hard, as it is without doubt one of the greatest songs of the 1990s and it is a shame the public don't know it better and more of a shame that the band disregard it. Nevertheless, they were very good and I have since got myself a copy of The Weekend Never Starts Round Here.

My last gig was the upcoming Leeds favourites iForward, Russia! who I have previously written on. The band do stand out from the current "Everything's brilliant in Leeds!" scene as they rock harder and have an almost emo flavour to their sound. They rocked Cabaret Voltaire needless to say and converted some non-fans in the crowd. Starting off with last single Thirteen the band went through a set, of song all with numbers as names, barely taking a breath which suits the half hour set just fine. The band look the part in their uniform t-shirts, have an attractive drummer and now just need to be signed. This should not take too much longer on tonights performance and I hope the best for them. (Big shout to the support band iLiKETRAiNS who were brilliant in a miserable-Interpol type way - more on them soon)
This was the song they started the set with, and arguably their best so far. Had members of the audience asking them to repeat it at the, very rare, moments when the band were silent.

Forward, Russia! - Thirteen

Later...