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Review by Rob.

Even a power cut cannot halt them .

Good job we had just got served then. Yes just as I was taking the first sip of the night all the lights went out (as of course did the beer pumps) A quick trip outside confirmed that this was a big power cut, half of Leeds City centre was off line. As the minutes ticked by in darkness there was nothing to do but sit tight and hope the electricians could do their thing or pray Hope of the States have brought their acoustic guitars and candles along. Thankfully after a worrying 40 minutes everything sprang back into life and I had a gig to review.

The band were on in the smaller room at the venue as they had deliberately gone for intimate locations in which to showcase the new songs they had been working on for the past year. This lent a strange atmosphere when they came on, although the venue was sold out the band were clearly far to big for it and the audience of little more then 150 seemed a little in awe of them. There was no shouting between songs for example just the occasional bit of banter. The other point of note was the impressive way they managed to get all seven members on the stage together. They looked very snug indeed as they fired up opening song 'Bonfires'.

Tonight was really about the new songs, they played a few older ones like 'Enemies/friends' and 'The Red White Black and Blue' plus a superb 'Black Dollar Bills' but they spliced them into the set typically between 2 or 3 newies. I didn't get all the song titles but stand out tracks were slow burner 'Church Choir', a magnificent epic track in the Bills mode called something like 'Good Fight' and the wild west tinged 'A Horse'. The new single, which is not really a single but a limited edition thing which has already sold out, 'Blood Meridian' is very different for them, a bit commercial and poppy but still sounds ok though. Track of the night for me is 'This is a question' one of the best things they have done.

The new album which is called 'Left' will not be out until June but have no fears its going to be a superb album if this show is any form guide. And its going to sound quite a bit different from the debut too. After an hour of blissful music they leave us with 'Static in the Cities' and the only complaint was that they didn't play 'Don't go to pieces' from the debut. Keep turning left until you feel right indeed.

Set List

Bonfires
New song?
Nehemiah
Good fight
Blood Meridian
Enemies/Friends
Black Dollar Bills
Sing it out
This is a question
The Red White Black and Blue
The Church Choir

Encores

A Horse
New song
Static in the cities

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