Alaska
Live at Packhorse on Friday, 27th January 2012
According to their fan page, Alaska describe themselves as a 'four piece garage rock, post-punk, surf/psych-pop band'. So from this ambiguous description you would reckon that they are pretty original. They definitely are!
Walking into the small room tucked away upstairs of The Packhorse pub in Leeds, it was hard to believe that an up and coming band of any calibre would be comfortable playing there. Packed into the small box room were around seventy people, some obviously cult fans, others were those that just on pure luck stumbled across the event whilst having a quiet one in their local, and also friends and family, all there to enjoy and support the band's newest addition to the set list and music video 'Girl'. As soon as they began playing it was clear that the lack of space added to the friendly, excitable atmosphere rather than being detrimental in any way; like we were all about to hear your new favourite band.
There is no doubt that in anyone's book the guys are 'different' from the array or random animals that were projected onto their backdrop, to the odd song titles like 'Cowboy' they definitely set themselves apart from the other hundreds of unsigned bands around. Not music that you could easily forget in a hurry.
With similar tones to such bands as 'The Drums', it was hard not to smile at their catchy rifts and infectious rhythm that was delivered in every one of their tracks. In my opinion however there wasn't really a 'stand out' tune amongst the set list, though this would inevitably come with time.
The new video is a definite must see, pretty certain to give you a giggle, which, along with a relaxed atmosphere and the oddly lovable support act, 'Samuel Foxton Welles' (he wore a fox hat in case you ever forgot his name) delivered an extremely enjoyable night. I left thinking I'd been round a mate's listening to some exciting new music than at a gig.
