After last years phenomenal debut Constellations Festival over at Leeds University as such a success, we knew for sure the IlikePress team would be bringing it back for a second outing, bigger and better.
Having their fingers well on truly on the pulse when it comes to top new acts and established names -last years event saw the likes of Sleigh Bells, The Vaccines and Gold Panda welcomed onto the music scene, along with the likes of Les Savy Fav, Four Tet and Liars putting on a party for all- this year was no exception.
The first band of the day were Outfit, a heavily-tipped Liverpool five-piece in one of the universities smaller hubs, The Mine. The Mine, a thin, darkly rimmed strip of stage was, in my personal opinion, one of the best areas for the band to play, complete with romantic vocals and hanging darkly over their instruments, all well-fitting with broody guitars. Outfit: Scousers’ well and truly ones-to-watch on the radar for 2012.
Next up over in the Riley Smith theatre (a venue I do not recall from last year) as Anglo-American girl/boy duo Big Deal. Stirring up a lot of hype over the last twelve months from relentless touring and their well-received debut, ‘Lights Out’, Big Deal string together grungy guitar lines alongside heart-wrenching stories of love, lust and loss. Kacey Underwood, the self-proclaimed ‘sarcastic-sounding’ acoustic character of the two, kept the crowd entertained between beautiful renditions of tracks such as ‘Homework’ and ‘Locked Up’ with anecdotes of ‘missing his school dance’ and how beautiful projections had been made part of the festival show today. Tracks including ‘Chair’ shouldn’t sound so gentle with Alice Costelloe’s scuzzy, throbbing playing over the top, yet still do- this is the magic of Big Deal. Packed out with swaying lovers, giggling teenage girls and appreciatively-nodding boys, Big Deal have certainly come up trumps again today.
After a much-needed refuel and breather, we scurried over to Stylus to check out Manchunians’ Dutch Uncles. Having seen the band twice previously and not been particularly ‘wowed’ before, I honestly didn’t have high hopes for the bands set today…oh how I was proven wrong. Jiving (quite literally) through light, electro tracks such as ‘Face In’, see front man Duncan’s dance moves being somewhat questionable in resembling one’s Uncle at a wedding (oh, the irony). However, did fit into the set wonderfully, providing a visual treat for all- gosh, did out Mothers’ not teach us not to judge a book by it’s cover?! Packing an electro fistful of keyboards, percussion pads and jangly riffs over Duncan’s falsetto vocal, on the surface appears very reminiscent of the likes of The Rakes back in 2007, however, this is what makes them stand out in today’s mudslide of typical indie rock and roll.
Sticking with The Stylus for the ever-dreamy Summer Camp next, saw Jeremy Warmsley (Yes, HIM of ex-folk/ acousting solo fame) and Elizabeth Sankey (Yes, HER of ex-journalistic wonders) melt together their abilities to showcase tracks from their recently-released debut ‘Welcome To Condale’. Now, being one of my favourite albums of the year so far (I don’t care that it’s only early November), I honestly didn’t think that their live performance would live up to WTC’s all-american, 80’s feel. Oh how wrong I was. Swooning their way through tracks including ‘Losing My Mind, ‘Down’ and ‘Brian Krakow’ their summertime vibes of adolescence hit true to any age with tales of love and youth. Now a staple of their live show, the duo also install a projection screen on-stage during their set showing cult classic films including ‘The Breakfast Club’ and ‘Pretty In Pink’, of which move in time to their talents. SERIOUSLY, if you havn’t yet purchased their debut, DO IT BEFORE I HUNT YOU DOWN. But, seriously, Warmsley and Sankey are well and truly a force to be reckoned with.
Sticking with the Stylus (popular, eh?) for the events special guests of the day Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks, sees the two-tiered room absolutely packed to the rafters, as the legendary ex-Pavement front man played his way through tracks off the group’s latest album ‘Mirror Traffic’, including ‘Senator’ and ‘Brain Gallop’. As a HUGE Pavement/ Jick’s fan myself, I was more than ecstatic to finally catch their live show in such an intimate venue, as were many of the bands playing/ promoters themselves. Their live show created a mixed review amongst the crowd on a love/hate spectrum it appeared. In a nutshell, Pavement fans LOVED the show and those new to the Jick’s experience found the show “extremely bland”, as I heard on, ahem, reserved, attendee put it… what do they know?! Front man of one of the best cult bands of recent generations, in my opinion, delivered a fantastic, awe-inspiring set (Plus meeting a baseball cap-clad Malkmus at the bar afterwards actually may just have been one of the best moments of my life…).
After getting coach times back to Manchester in a pickle, it was unfortunate that the last band we could watch of the day was Yuck. A fantastic grunge-inspired four-piece featuring Daniel Blumberg of Cajun Dance Party (remember them?) fame, acting as a doe-eyed, afro of a man performing wonderfully gentle vocals on tracks such as ‘Suicide Policeman’, can also do the expected raw vocals, evident on ‘Georgia’ and ‘The Wall’ with an added clout. Female bassist Mariko Doi, armed with a sharp jet-black bowl-cut and swaying hips adds a touch of class, mystery and elegance to an other wise masculine collection. The band are well on-form when a lengthy technical hitch plagues their set into a scuzzy roar of feedback followed by silence- made even more awkward when the band don’t even utter a single word to the baffled crowd. In a live show these things happen and with the promotors/ in-house staff handling the situation extremely well, the band are soon back in the game, thrashing through ‘ Operation’ and ‘Holing Out’ to name but a few. Sure Yuck are a brilliant, classic-sounding band who will no doubt still be celebrated by niche cliques in years to come, only next time, try to smile a bit guys, yeah?
After legging it half way across Leeds city centre in order to make our coach back in time, (Armed with a too-cheesy-for-words grin on my face with Stephen Malkmus’s arm around me picture), we would like to thank Simon Fogal, the rest of the IlikePress team and everyone who was lovely as ever to us for our second year at Constellations Festival. Adios until next year!
