The current wave of appreciation for The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart by the indie media has clearly reached Yorkshire, as the local crowd crams into the Cockpit to see New York's latest band of the moment; the city that is starting to make guitar bands cool again in the same way that The Strokes and The Ramones have done in the past.
Ironically supporting a band from The Big Apple, local five piece The Manhattan Love Suicides arrive on stage, black clad and ready for action. The band don't communicate once with the audience; front woman Caroline letting the blink-and-you'd-miss it fuzz punk songs get the attitude across. Each tune begins with all the excitement of the aforementioned Ramones at their best, but the vocals, once introduced, put a dampener on the energy as they became lost in the sound and picking out any of the lyrics becomes a losing battle.
A band with style and an element of substance, but the influences are too obvious and cannot be beaten.
After a swift supporting set, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart take to the stage and immediately the fuzz guitar comes back into play. If you haven't heard anything from their excellent self-titled album yet, the simplest way to describe their sound is an over-distorted shoe gaze a la Jesus & Mary Chain and more distinctly My Bloody Valentine.
But what sets them apart is great interplay of vocals between Kip Berman and Peggy Wang-East, the male-female combo makes some good songs sound great. Their twee voices make you forget some of the more downbeat lyrics and the lively rhythm helped the packed second room get its groove on as the set progressed, the energy from the stage moving through the room. Songs like 'Young Adult Friction' and 'Come Saturday' set a frantic pace as the band promptly play through their album much to the pleasure of the crowd.
And the audience's enjoyment is clearly absorbed by the band who respond with aplomb, the non-mic'd musicians mouthing along with the front row and an impromptu appreciation of band T-shirts amongst the gig-goers and the band erupts during the encore.
The two acts get through the gig in little over an hour and a half; no showboating or excessive self-appreciation here, but a tightly-knit, economical performance that leaves the crowd with nothing but joy in their pure hearts.
Gig Date: Thursday, 21st May 2009 | 247 page views.
