Rebel Alliance Tour – Leeds Cockpit
16th February 2010
Random Hand, The Skints, Mouthwash and Chris Murray
There were two gigs on at the Cockpit on Tuesday which made for a slightly hilarious mixture in the queue between punks and hipsters, and it also meant that by the time we actually got inside Chris Murray was already on stage. He was joined by Jon and Jamie from the Skints, and played an enthusiastic set of his upbeat ska. He bantered with the crowd and deserves a lot more recognition than he’s currently getting.
Mouthwash were up next, and had guitar troubles almost from the off. I’ve seen them once before and couldn’t stand them, but I was prepared to change my mind. I almost did, since the first three songs were really good, including a brilliant version of ‘That Girl’. However after that all the songs began to blur into one loud punk mess and it resulted in an overly-long set that I didn’t much care for.
The running over of Mouthwash meant that The Skints didn’t get as much time as they should have, and this was definitely a shame. The Skints play soulful reggae and they deserve to be as big as friends and allies The King Blues. They are always tight, and drummer Jamie sings amazingly, backed up by the wonderful Marcia. She plays a punk rock flute, and that alone should be enough reason to check out their album Live. Breathe. Build. Believe.
Random Hand were as heavy as ever. It was their drummer Joe’s last gig; he’s had enough of touring, not that it showed. It seemed like a definite high to go out on. Highlights were starting with ‘Scum Triumphant’, the always amazing ‘Anthropology’ and a new song called ‘Start the Fans Please’. An enthusiastic mosh pit from a local crowd meant that Random Hand left to a lot of applause, and were excellent.
