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Review: 'Future of the Left / Bearfoot Beware / Unwave'
'Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 25th November 2016'   


-  Genre: 'Rock'

Our Rating:
It’s noteworthy that Future of the Left have hand-picked their supports for this tour in support of their latest album, ‘The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left’. It’s equally noteworthy that there’s a remarkable number of Leeds bands featuring, including the mighty Blacklisters and Post War Glamour Girls. Tonight, we get Unwave and Bearfoot Beware.

Both prove to be decent on the night. Unwave begin with intimations of post-rock leanings before erupting into a set of angular 90s alt-rock influenced noise, brimming with jarring riffs and throat-straining vocals. They’re good, cohesive, and have a certain energy.

Bearfoot Beware are simply a different band from the one I panelled for being shit at Fibbers in Yok in 2011. After a purple patch of prolificness in 2012-2013, the intervening years have seen the trio steadily build their catalogue and live following, and tonight, they absolutely nail it. While still wild – the bassist in particular is beyond frenetic, kinetic, a ball of leaping, lurching energy who makes for compulsive viewing – they’re as taut and together as any band I’ve seen in the last year. They’re loving playing, and the crowd are loving hearing them, and it’s an absolute joy to hear their shouty, choppy, exuberant racket.

It’s easy to see and hear why Future of the Left have such an ardent fan-base. Their latest album – their fifth, the crowd-funded (with the target met in three and a half hours, which gives a sense of just how ardently appreciated by their fans this band is) ‘The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left’ is a magnificent demonstration of a band not giving a fuck, while completely giving all the fucks. That is so say, they’re politically charged but as irreverent as conceivably possible. They’re as obtuse as they come, as noisy and often as unmusical as is imaginable, but they also have, stowed away, some incredible hooks, and then there are the of-kilter lyrics, some nonsense and hilarious, some biting and incisive. To begin to unravel it all would be beyond the remit of this – or any other – straightforward gig review, but on this outing, the refrains of ‘army surplus motherfucker’ and the longstanding classic ‘Colin is a pussy / A very pretty pussy’ are clear standouts which make the point.

Sonically, it’s all about Julia Ruzicka’s bass. It was listening to the new album on my way to the show that this realisation hit but it’s at the show that my belief as affirmed. It’s the dominant sound, and she’s simply a phenomenal player. She doesn’t do the ‘cool female bassist’ ting, nonchalantly thumping out four-four bottom end: he really attacks every note, and works – and sweats – as hard as the other band members. No female musician pass here. At times – in particularly on ‘If AT&T Drank Tea What Would BP Do’, her thunderous, overdriven four-string attack sounds like three basses. So when Ian Catskilkin (yes, Ian Catskilkin of Art Brut, no less) hefts a second bass…woah. And going through the Brudenell’s ever-awesome PA, it’s something else.

The band attack every song like it’s the encore at the biggest show of their lives. There’s no let-up in intensity at any point in the set, and any breathers are filled with what’s popularly termed as ‘banter’, but this would fail dismally to convey the experience of a Future of the Left show.

Andy Falkous is the funniest band person you’ll ever hear as he chats between songs (and his rare blog posts are something else, too). He’s razor-sharp and a complete natural, and as he riffs on Phil Collins and Brexit, he has the place in stitches like I’ve never seen. He’s also as hard-working a performer you’ll witness, as he pours perspiration and showers the crowd in spittle with every line. The rest of the band are hardly slackers, either, and Ruzicka is particularly impressive: she doesn’t pose or pout but instead gives everything to churning out relentlessly formidable basslines.

It’s hard to summarise a review of a gig like this: FOTL bring to the party everything you could possibly want or wish for from a live show. They’re incredible. They’re intense. They’re entertaining. It’s the Brudenell, the best venue in the north of England, or, indeed, anywhere. It’s Friday night. It’s nights like this which stand out as the reason for being.

  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Future of the Left / Bearfoot Beware / Unwave - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 25th November 2016
Unwave
Future of the Left / Bearfoot Beware / Unwave - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 25th November 2016
Barefoot Beware
Future of the Left / Bearfoot Beware / Unwave - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 25th November 2016
Future of the Left