On a rather warm Saturday night in Leeds, The Key Club opened their doors to the eager queue of fans patiently waiting outside the venue.
First on the bill we have the kings of Gloom Lotus Eater, hailing from the streets of Glasgow they pull a surprisingly big crowd for the first support act of the night. Kicking it straight into their psychotic, aggressive down right deranged set, the crowd were loving it from the first note with a circle pit opening up before they’d even touched their guitars. Their powerful riffs tearing through the venue like bullet. The crowd began to calm down (maybe a tad tired) halfway through but the band were not accepting any signs of weakness and shouted “We love to see people get hurt, you better hurt someone tonight. Someone better die”. The crowd evidently pumped obliged and opened the pit back up. Towards the end of the set we were given another surprise in the form of Guest vocals by Rob Kirk of 99% Cobra to which the crowd reacted very well.
Allowing the crowd a short time to cool down and grab another drink, Palm Reader graced The Key Club’s stage. From the opening song they had the crowd in the palm of their hand. Their unique sound worked perfectly in this stacked diverse line up. The set appealed to both new fans of their and hardcore Palm Reader fans, with some incredible tracks from their latest album and some golden throwbacks. The astounding performance makes me scratch my head at the fact that Palm Reader aren’t selling out huge venues.
After what seemed like forever, the lights dimmed and the atmospheric album opener {51/50} hit. The crowd packed to the front excited for the headline performance. Blood Youth finally entered the stage to the roar of the pumped up fans. Kicking off their set with one of their lead singles Spineless from their latest album Starve. Right from the first track the crowd screamed every single lyric back to them as the band showed they loved them just as much. Halfway through, the band asked that although they love the energy of the crowd they don’t want a repeat of what happened last time they played The Key Club in which a poor concert goer broke their leg mid-set. The energy from both the band and crowd throughout the whole performance was outstanding especially during the old classics such as Parasite and Closure.
Words and Photos - Nathan Robinson (Apertunes)