Dead Skeletons, Hookworms, Electric Kool Aid - Leeds

[runcible]

Quite a night at The Library in Leeds last night...

Electric Kool Aid were fun - kind of shoe-gazey guitar drones which drifted about nicely enough. I'd heard a bit of their stuff but never seen them live before.

Hookworms were immense. Each time I see them is better than the last and they pumped out a wall of throbbing guitars with some excellent rippling wah-wah so a lot of focused Spacemen type noise. I was familiar with most of their set - Teen Dreams is always a treat but the opening track, which seemed really complex in its construction, was absolutely awesome. I can't wait for that album... Nice to catch up briefly with a few of the Worm lads, our own MattBenn included of course.

Dead Skeletons were - and there's no other word - astonishing. One of those occasions where a band you have no particular expectations of just blow your head off. Sonic Youth on the Daydream Nation tour in 1988, CAVE in Manchester 2 years ago... This was right up there. From the moment they got going til the last distorted chords clicked off when the main guy turned off his equipment they were a revelation. A very odd looking bunch of blokes, straggly hair and tattoos for the most part, but what a unit they are. Endless tribal-driven motorik beats with a thick fuzzy wall of sound that pulsated in glorious fashion. I recognised just one track and all the rest was new to me but every single song was fantastic. Will Carruthers on bass was just amazing - I love the guy's style and he's an awesome player but he just looked so into it.

I don't know about the rest of the tour dates but they rate as one of those bands you absolutely cannot miss if they come to your town. They were that good.

[sunray]

A very odd looking bunch of blokes, straggly hair and tattoos for the most part

Wouldn't call that odd Runci, more like page one of the RocknRoll Handbook.

Glad you enjoyed them, sounds like they were a more powerful proposition than they were in Dublin. I know we only got half a set but even taking that into account I was expecting a bit more dirt in the mix. Be interested to hear the views of those who were at the Liverpool Psych Fest.

[Hedspace]

Good to hear the Dead Skeletons are playing a storm elsewhere. As sunray mentioned previously, The Dublin gig was a bit of a shambles, sound was all over the shop initially and by the time they (the sound engineers: most likely from the college upstairs) nearly got it right it was sliced in half and ended. I was depressed enough at that stage without having to listen to OM. Wtf was that sh*t

A nice surprise to see Will Carruthers kicking it out with them. The tv/installation in the middle is a bit of killer on the eyes….move it off to the side a little so we can see the band. Great bunch to look at.
Hopefully they return and we get to see and hear them in full flight.

[Laz69]

Review of the aforementioned bands at Liverpool's Psych weekend...

http://thequietus.com/articles/10233-li ... sychedelia

[clewsr]

thanks Laz, sounds like it was really good. Disappointed I was out of the city last weekend

[Aquarian-Time]

I saw them @ Liverpool Pysch fest, but to be honest I cant remember much about it as I was nearly 12 hours into the festival and 12 hours drinking as well !
Bands I saw were Lucid Dream (decent, well worth checking), The Altered Hours (from Cork I think, bit of a MBV thing going on), THe See See, marvellous as ever, Wolf people were outstanding and suprised me, they were a bit like The dead in places, then went a bit Pysch, all good though and very accomplished players. Highlight for me was Mugstar, they just ramped the quality levels up a few notches and the visuals were awesome.
I caught most of the bands at some point, as the two stages were 1 mins walk away from each other, but the day got pretty long and quite rightly the organisers have opted for a weekend affair next year. Oh and I caught the Hookworms as well, who were outstanding and get better with every listen.
A decent festival, good bands, well attended (800 odd), good venue, good food, bring on next year