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Gig Review

Future of the Left / Pulled Apart By Horses / Wooderson / La Folie
The Harley, Sheffield

Article written by Matt H - Jun 11, 2009

Future of the Left - travelled by themselves to rainy Sheffield

The first part of the night sees a couple of bands braving the rains to bring us promising but unfinished riffery. La Folie provide a combo of hard-edged metal and circus organs which they haven't quite stitched the two parts together properly yet. Wooderson have a similar problem - it's difficult to know if they want to be post-rock or the Who. There'd be nothing wrong with combining the two of course but somehow they haven't quite got it together yet either. Still La Folie in particular are a cut above a lot of bottom of the bill fodder.

Pulled Apart By Horses have no such identity crisis. They're down the line screamy metal and all the better for it. Crunching but with just the right dash of proper rock 'n roll boogie, they are loud and proud and shamelessly entertaining - getting a fair following actually moving their arses.

Future of the Left can easily follow in the noise stakes. Sensibly sacrificing some of their on-record subtlety in favour of live impact, their rhythms thunder beneath keening riffery - be it form keyboard or guitar. Spiky focal point Andy Falkous teases the crowd as well as he snarls - all the while his fresh crop making him look like a more troubled Kelly Jones who made all the right artistic choices and ended up considerably poorer and slimmer as a result (it's not exactly fair...). As the band jump from one tuneful blast to another it dawns that, though everyone has their favourites, the audience isn't doing the usual thing waiting for one or two stand out songs. Every single one is a highlight; a top-notch cleverly constructed rabble-rouser. So it's only when the last song is announced, and the crowd know that there's no more brilliance to save their energy for, that the inevitable mosh-pit finally kicks off.

Usually it makes sense to qualify a final judgement with an 'amongst' here or a 'one of' there. But in the face of how good Future of the Left are at the moment, equivocation is futile. They are the best band around and we'd better get used to it.

Links:
http://www.futureoftheleft.com/
http://www.myspace.com/pulledapartbyhorses