The Longcut – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 20/10/09

11 November 2009, 17:43 | Written by Marc Higgins

(Live)

Manchester alt indie supremos The Longcut, I thought, would be huge by now. Gaining notoriety in the mid 00’s it seems they have been trundling along in the background for the last few years, releasing EP’s on occasion. Last time I saw them packing out The Cockpit, this time it’s the slightly more reserved intimacy of The Brudenell Social Club.

Not being very impressed at all with the random support band We Are Made From China, who warbled on with some very obvious Americana rock, in the style of Springsteen but not comparably as good by a long-shot. Obviously. It irritates me no end when clubs just throw any band on in support, that bear no relation to the band that is headlining. At least put a good band on, jeez!

But lets push on with The Longcut. It isn’t packed to the rafters but the floor is full, however the new songs aren’t going down brilliantly, as singer Stuart Ogilvie struggles with his vocals, and struggles or makes no attempt to rouse the crowd. I imagine The Longcut as the band to have everyone shimmy shaking, just a little bit. But the crowd are motionless. They open with newbie ‘Tell You So’, an Interpol style tale of pained romance, but the band aren’t fully there it seems and the vocals are too big for Ogilvie to nail. He can’t half hit the drums though!

Songs like ‘Repeated’ and ‘Evil Dance’ from the latest record Open Hearts show that these guys can blend old school rave, punk and post rock with consummate ease, but there is something slightly stunted in their performance tonight. I expected it to be more explosive.

Lee Gale is the only one that brings some sparks, obviously he brought his lint. He crunches his guitars, discordant and chopped he livens things up. With such powerful songs I wouldn’t think it would be hard to get involved but it took most of the night for the band to warm up. It was like a rehearsal until they bashed out ‘A Quiet Life’, even though it is a monster of a song it was a case of a little too late.

I wouldn’t say it was bad, just not brilliant tonight. Live, a band needs to bring you into their headspace, and into their songs. That didn’t happen!

The new record is good though!