The Sunshine Underground @ Leeds Metropolitan University, May 23rd
Welcome to Leeds. A fair city in the breezy North where the punters even cheer on the roadies, a a breeding ground of generic whining indie boys, and home of The Sunshine Underground. Tonights crowd were clearly enthusiastic or drunk perhaps but very excited about the show ahead. Loiners The Sunshine Underground ended their recent tour UK-wide with a sell-out homecoming gig in Leeds last night. Support came from Old Romantic Killer Band and 80s-fuelled Boy Crisis.
Opening with some new tracks, the enthused crowd already got into the mood with some hardcore dancing, it being ridiculously hard to keep still to The Sunshine Undergrounds trademark brand of funk-rock. No skinny jeans in sight, the third song in was stormer Commercial Breakdown, and by now there wasnt a still body in the room. Frontman Craig Wellington was giving it his all with his shouty yelps and Northern soul, complimented with heart-wrenching riffs and thrashing drums.
For a band who released their debut album Raise The Alarm way back when in 2006, and have released no long-players since, it says something that they still have the ability to pack out venues with their party-starting antics. Theyre currently working on some new material but no follow-up album details have been officially released as yet. The Sunshine Undergrounds following is hardcore and loyal not a lyric was left out.
New songs included In Your Arms and Change Your Mind are briefly introduced while the band dry themselves off with towels, and are precisely what youd expect from The Sunshine Underground, but somehow its not tedious. It just makes us dance more because we dont yet know the words.
One good thing about The Sunshine Underground is that they dont have to fill their set with tedious banter, the music is almost continuous. Borders welcomed an anthemic singsong that would make the football terraces at Elland Road seem like a library, whereas The Way It Is had Craig bounding around the stage like a caffeinated kangaroo. Crowd. Goes. Wild.
The band thank us and vanish quickly off stage while we wait an eternity for them to return. What a treat - Put You In Your Place was our spine-tingling encore, with an extended intro that had the crowd going wild. The band continued to tease, as the audience chanted Im on top but youre trying to stop me now, over and over before Craig finally began to bellow into the microphone. The Sunshine Underground previously supported Happy Mondays on tour, and they themselves wouldnt be out of place in massive venues.
The set ended in true TSU style with lead guitarist Stuart Jones stagediving into the crowd, none of that poncey Southern walking off stage in sight.