It's a bit of an aircraft hangar is the refectory at Leeds Uni. I can't say I remember either Preston, York or Huddersfield where I've studied having such a bloody huge venue.
After dealing with photo passes, and finding out that Gomez will only allow photos during the first three songs (and with no flash), I settle myself into the front area. At least these restrictions mean I get to be in front of the crash barrier for my allotted time, so there is some recompense for such rock star requests. I wonder if their rider contains M&Ms with all the green ones taken out?
To tell the truth, it's all a bit strange, as I believe I was at school with one of them - Tom Gray, I find out later from a friend, whose little sister went out with him. Not that I can remember as he must be 5 years younger than me. Ok, so I'm 31 and getting used to seeing bands that are much younger than me and I could have picked on them in the playground. But to actually have it rubbed in my face that hard, well I'm counting the grey hairs as we speak!
There's a hell of a crowd around me, most of them younger than Gomez, although there's a fair smattering of older buggers like me there, probably brought there by the fact Gomez sound old beyond their years - wizened old blues players at that!
ARCHIVE are up first. I've listened to "Again" and "You All Look The Same To Me" quite a bit since they came to W&H's attention earlier this year - and pretty good stuff it is too. They come on in a melange of woolly hats and suits, fiddling around for a minute before blasting into action. The vocals are massively high in the mix, the extra tall guitarist is doing some serious rocking out and one of the two keyboard players looks like Bunnymen guitarist Will Sargent (Strange coincidences ahoy: the real Will lived in the grounds of the school Tom Gray and I shared) and is waving his arms like some demented conductor. The mix of drums and drum machine/ sequencer is pretty mesmerising, combined with the guitars, keyboards and strident vocals.
At one point there are even two bass guitars employed (but it's wa more sophisticated than Ned's Atomic Dustbin), and it's akin to a multi-layered Nirvana; the dynamics of the songs being emphasised by the sheer volume. Musically, there are shades of Talk Talk and vocally, the ghost of a balladeering Bono lurks, but in a good way.
It's not until the last track that singer Craig Walker's hat comes off, and he waves his mike stand around - probably in an attempt to distract us from the bad case of hat hair it's given him. He needn't worry, however, as this music has captivated us for the best part of an hour: dense, murky and emotional in its' translation. I've been re-checking the album ever since. It's good to know they can shape this into a live context without it sounding effete or pretentious. Great stuff.
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GOMEZ fly onstage, guitars aplenty, and power through several songs, including my personal favourite of theirs, recent(ish) single "Shot Shot", which gets a huge response, the crowd cheering wildly in the pause.
"Have you brought your singing voices?" they enquire. "Sing along!" they implore as they get at least one lighter in the crowd waving.
Higlights are "Ruff Stuff" and "Rex Kramer" and a whole slew of delights from "In Our Gun", plus goodies from the previous "Liquid Skin" and "Bring It On" albums, which I feel I must now investigate further. Gomez aren't easy to pigeonhole, but I know some folks at Whisperinandhollerin have complained that they stick too many genres into the blender. I've always enjoyed this eclectic side of them and in a live situation it makes even more sense. It feels cohesive and I'm sure any fellow reviewers doubts would be allayed by a trip to see them play live.
"It's been 5 years since I was stuck in this Godawful refectory," Tom tells us. He knows exactly what it feels like to be down here - so it must be pretty good to be up there. "Patience, my good man, it's all coming," he tells a fan calling out requests.
The band rip through a great set, switching guitars all the time. I'm never less than impressed by Ben Ottewell's gravel growl and there's a wonderful Country & Western feel to one song, conrasting with the raucous blues of most of the rest. "Are we going to get this whole room moving?" they taunt, rhetorically. "Are you willing and able? Have you got anything better to do?" they shout before getting the throng heaving with ease.
Thank Goodness a good education didn't lead Gomez off into accountancy or something else "better to do," because in my eyes they certainly are willing and able. Check them out if they buzz into your local orbit.
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