Catfish and the Bottlemen – Leeds University Stylus, 9/11/2014 Live Review
Their name has been tumbling off
the lips of rock fans everywhere due to the plethora of media attention they’ve
been receiving in the past year, so if you don’t know who they are yet, you
should probably stick your nose out of the rock you’ve been hiding under every
once in a while.
Last time they were in Leeds, Catfish and the Bottlemen absolutely
smashed the Festival Republic stage and it’s clear from the very second that
the hordes of fans swarm upon the venue that expectations are high and tonight
is going to be phenomenal.
Brother and sister duo Southerners are the first to grace the stage with their blues fused rock and
roll twang, and exceed all expectations that could be set of a family pair that
have been in business for only two years – they’re confident, smooth, and the
perfect composers of a crowd that are loving every minute of their set.
Then, the lights drop and the
soundtrack to of Pirates of the Caribbean thunders through the speakers,
sending an electric pulse through the crowd that’s almost deadly. On walk Catfish and the Bottlemen, clad in
their leather jackets and surrounded by a smoke of self-assurance as the crowd
transcends into a wave of madness. The very first chord of ‘Rango’ sends the venue into a mental
frenzy that lasts until the end of their set. Despite claiming that his voice
is on its ‘last legs,’ frontman Van McCaan doesn’t hold back and performs every
note to perfection despite being almost drowned out by the 1000 strong crowd.
Sweat is dripping from every forehead five minutes into their set, shoes are
being thrown everywhere and at least a half a dozen crowd-surfers have gone
over the barrier already.
Perhaps the only flaw of the night is that it’s very much the Van
McCaan show, with the rest of the band resigned to merely playing their
instruments in their set stage places (though still playing excellently nevertheless),
but Van’s interaction with the crowd and his dynamic energy fuelling the masses
at his feet are more than enough to carry the crowd.
It isn’t just the hits such as ‘Kathleen’
and ‘Pacifier’ that get a roaring
response, every song on the set list is reverberated off the walls. Penultimate
song ‘Cocoon’ is the highlight of the
entire evening, with the crowd chanting the chorus several times over to the
point that it’s deafening. After an elongated and explosive rendition of finale
‘Tyrants’, it’s time for Catfish to leave the stage with the
promise to return to Leeds O2 Academy next year. Amazingly, the energy
continues to pulse through the venue as the crowd filters out into the tranquil
Sunday evening that had been forgotten in the heat of the concert, proof that
tonight has been one that verifies why Catfish
and the Bottlemen deserve every ounce of praise they get.
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