Live Review: The Wildhearts/Those Damn Crows/The Middlenight Men (Leeds Stylus, 19/9/21)

So we finally did it, the first ever Nite Songs live review - a mere 19 months after my last live gig (Terrorvision at Leeds Warehouse in February 2020), your correspondent finally makes it out to his first post-lockdown concert. And, let's be honest, there's no better way to do that than by seeing your favourite band in your home city for the first time in many many years after a decade away down south.

More on that shortly. First on tonight, The Middlenight Men put in a good account of themselves with a line-up including four guitarists, a horn section and two backing singers - I think the last time I saw that many people on a stage together outside of an Urban Voodoo Machine concert might have been on Ginger's Valor del Corazon tour way back when. However, their tunes hit home nicely tonight with Heroine Heights and BA Baby being particular standouts. They've got an album launch coming up soon at Camden Underworld - capital dwellers among our readership, you know what to do.

Given my oft stated dislike of the New Wave of Classic Rock, it's probably safe to say that Those Damn Crows were never going to fly particularly well with me (haha, see what I did there? Yeah, I know, sorry). For what it's worth, they're a solid band musically and clearly know their stuff when it comes to sounding tight and focused but when your tunes are as unmemorable and interchangeable as theirs (I mean literally, every song seems to be in the same key), all that really amounts to is being the musical equivalent of saying my dad's pretty nifty with a lawnmower. Nice guys I'm sure and they go down quite well with the front few rows here tonight but really not my cup of tea, sorry.

There's definitely a real buzz around the venue when the Wildhearts kick in with the slow-building intro of Diagnosis and when the song explodes into its driving main riff, the crowd goes suitably nuts especially when they follow it up with a quick one-two of Vanilla Radio and Sick of Drugs. The group have been on a good run of form the last few times I saw them pre-lockdown as they've taken advantage of having such an expansive back catalogue to be able to cherry pick the best bits and throw in a few curveballs for the long term fans to enjoy and tonight's no exception as along with the expected stuff like Caffeine Bomb, Mazel Tov Cocktail and Suckerpunch we get the rarely played Jackson Whites off Chutzpah!, Caprice (which apart from the phuq anniversary show a few years back I don't think I'd heard since I saw them way back in 1996 or so) and Inglorious off Fishing For Luckies which absolutely rips tonight.

Surprisingly we only get two offerings from the new 21st Century Love Songs album tonight but given that it's literally only been out a fortnight, that's maybe understandable especially given what a complex beast it is. I suspect that Ginger's maybe allowing it to sink into peoples' heads a little bit and that we should expect a few more numbers from it next time out. Nevertheless though, the furious Splitter and an epic Remember Those Days (which they turn into a medley involving another couple of rarities Girlfriend Clothes and Splattermania which I don't think I've ever heard 'em do live) prove that these newies are definitely well placed to soar well in the live arena. Elsewhere, the crowd is in fine voice tonight, bellowing along with the likes of Let 'Em Go.

By the time a thunderous I Wanna Go Where The People Go brings things to a close, there's a celebratory atmosphere about the place with the moshpit well and truly going nuts. Overall a fantastic evening and certainly a great way to return to live gigs to for your correspondent! Hopefully we'll be seeing a few more live reviews going up on here before the year's out.

(All photos by Andy Close, all rights reserved)