The Vaselines / Haight Ashbury

This is a small venue for a classic band to play in, but the Brudenell's line up of artists just gets better and better, with not only The Cribs doing a 3 night residency here but Daniel Johnston and other cult favourites queueing up to play this tiny corner in the centre of this Leeds student hub.



Haight Ashbury are a gorgeous sounding band named after the crossroads of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco, with grungy guitars creating a backdrop for a duo of female harmonies, complete with dead bass lines and a thumping and constant drum beat. 'Mother's Ruin' has the most dirty guitar melody from Scott, only saved from the brink of the dump by the heavenly vocals from Jennifer and Kirsty. 'Sympathetic Strings' is my least favourite song because if reminds me of a Christmas carol, but that's just my opinion. 'Freeman Town' is another great track showing this Glaswegian trio's amazing talent. I hope to catch them again soon.

The Vaselines, if you didn't know, were brought to the crazy heights of stardom after a certain Mr Cobain and co covered one of their songs on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged album (along with the Meat Puppets and Leadbelly). 'Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam', and the two recorded for Incesticide ('Molly's Lips' and 'Son Of A Gun') insured an army of fans were introduced to the Vaseline's Lo-fi indie pop. The band however, Frances Mckee and Eugene Kelly, were no longer a band at this point; their first album had not even been released. Now they are back and touring second album 'Sex With An X'; more simple but classic songs based on mundane matters that are catchy as hell.



The duo always come across as sexed up, with comments from Frances mainly like "Friday Night in Glasgow is shagging night, turn to the person next to you and hold hands, you don't know what might happen!" Two guys behind me look at each other and say "it's not gonna happen…" in such a deadpan way it's hilarious. The album name itself gives you an idea, but older songs like 'Rory Rides Me Raw' and 'Dying For It' shows the state of mind of the two ex-lovers, though most of it is talked about in jest. The banter is always light-hearted; when two kids ask Eugene to smile, it's not that bad when they first take to the stage the straight-faced musician states "There is only one face, this face covers everything; happy, suicidal, ecstatic..."

This results in a relaxed and carefree show, just how the Vaselines like it. They are not the most technically amazing band, but they never were. It is the simple approach to song writing and performing that they believe made Kurt a fan, and many others like myself. I like the fun of it all, the mistakes that only appear when music is live; although the addition of Gareth (bass), Michael (drums) and the talented Paul on guitar (adding some cracking extra melodies) give the Vaselines a different level.



They pull up Scott from Haight Ashbury to play the bike horn in 'Molly's Lips' (the sound always cracks me up). There's a great mix of new and old songs, with 'Son Of A Gun' even getting a mosh pit going, but it's not just the one's Nirvana adopted that people are loving, although they are all here, it's all of the older tracks that people are going crazy for, especially 'I Hate The 80's', 'Rory Rides Me Raw' and the excellent 'Dum Dum'. Simple, in this case, is very much effective!

Set list:

Oliver Twisted
The Day I Was A Horse
I Hate The 80's
Sex Sux
Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam
Devil Inside
Monster Pussy
Sex With An X
Slushy
Turning It On
Son of A Gun
No Hope
Ruined
Molly's Lips
Rory Rides Me Raw
Dying For It

Such A Fool
You Think You're A Man
Dum Dum

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.