Since the demise of both The Well and The Cockpit, there’s been a gap in the (admittedly vast and many-venued) Leeds scene for a rock orientated venue. Key Club fills that gap. And it’s a proper rock venue: small, dark, below ground. This meant it took me a while to actually find it, and having battled high winds and heavy rain to find it, I failed to compute that the guy on the door was actually the front man of the band whose gust list I was on. Oops.
Still, I’d arrived in time to witness Super Luxury’s high-octane set. Blending key elements of grunge and hard rock into some crisp and powerful packages, shouter Adam Nodwell’s Hawk Eyes T-Shirt provides a far more useful reference than guitarist’s Bill Ocean T. Ferocious riffing is complimented by boundless energy, and there’s an undercurrent of zany humour too, which provides a definite twist.
Having raved about Ghold’s recently-released ‘Of Ruin’ album, I’d been keen to check them out and they didn’t disappoint. With instrumentation consisting of bass and drums, with the two players, Paul and Alex, both on vocals, they crank out a serious racket. At times grinding out bottom-end sludge drone reminiscent of early Earth (only with some hefty drumming), they kick through several gears to hammer out some four-string speed riffing that’s absolutely devastating.
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‘We’re Ooozing Wound from Chicago,’ announces Zack Weil by way of an introduction. It isn’t necessary. Even if you’d never seen or heard them before, even if you’d never heard of them, you’d know that the three guys on stage were Oozing Wound from Chicago. They fulfil the mental image of Oozing Wound from Chicago, and fit the sonic template, too. They sound nothing like Earth, and blast through a set that showcases tracks from their latest album, ‘Earth Suck’ and its predecessor, ‘Retrash’.
They’re loud, hard, heavy. And fast. Thrashy, but not thrash, quirky and humourous without being a comedy band, they get the solid dynamics of the classic power trio configuration and turn up the power to eleven. Strong. But not too serious.
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