Adopting a live fast, die young rock ‘n’ roll ethos over the past week I was undeterred by the ringing in my ears having seen the mighty Kings of Leon the night prior to this gig. This gig however was much different in style and substance.
The thing worth noting is that like many bands that are now popular, I was there first, downloading their demos off myspace, buying their initial limited releases on 7”. Klaxons are no different. I loved this band when I heard Gravity’s Rainbow on MTV2 at 4am one drunken Saturday. That my friends, was when they could be called an indie band. This was before Zane Lowe, T4 the fucking NME and the mercury prize could corrupt them and turn them into “indie nu-rave pawns”.
So, that being that I was skeptical about this gig. As much as I wanted to see them, the bad things I had heard didn’t make me that excited as the gig date approached.
We (I say we, me and my girlfriend) arrived mid-way through the first support – the appalling “fist fight” who mixed dance beats with pseudo-goth vocals and an organ sound that wouldn’t be out of place in the theme tune to the Munsters. Shite really isn’t the word I need to describe this act, but they are so bad it’s all I can be bothered to muster (or munster) up. The crowd were particularly subdued, maybe the E’s the glow-stick crowd had ingested hadn’t peaked. I was worried, I’d heard klaxons gigs were mental.
They were. Unbeknown to me the Klaxons had two support bands – Simian Mobile Disco were on next, which – I was quite excited about having heard the excellent “we are your friends” single (which they didn’t actually play). Leeds University union went dark. Lit by glowsticks (which security were actually confiscating) and the tiny lights of a giant box placed onstage. The crowd had suddenly perked up, or peaked – I’m not sure. As the space-age lights lit the room and the sounds of primitive animal justice bellowed from the crowd mixing with noises from the 5th dimension from out of the PA. Onstage two scruffy looking blokes, one with glasses – one with an afro dashed around a circular table which housed their equipment, pressing buttons – plugging and unplugging cables from what can only be described as a time machine and making the sorts of noises that wouldn’t be out of place in the Clangers. The crowd went nuts, it was like the kind of rave-up (god I sound old) that I dreamed of going to when I was 11. It was my first experience of what can be considered as a dance act (I have seen the prodigy, but that was at a festival, because of the scale of that gig, I have to omit it from my list) and it was great, part of me was wishing that I was off my nut on something illegal to make it even better. I don’t think my girlfriend liked them mind… not really her thing.
Anyway, the mad time traveling dance duo left the stage leaving the buzzing crowd stood about with their thumbs up their arses for the next 45 minutes.
Now, I don’t usually divulge my toilet experiences – not even to my girlfriend but this I just had to share. Think of it as “support #3”.
So, in this 45 minute gap I decided to go to the toilet, something that really should be forbidden at a gig – but I was busting! For those of you who have been to Leeds Uni for a gig will know what I mean when I say that the journey to the toilets is as colossal and long winded as the quest to destroy the fucking ring in the fires of mount doom. Seriously, if they hired out golf carts or another means of miniature transportation to get to the toilet – they would make a killing. Infact, I might fucking do it and retire at 30. Anyway, I’m waffling.
So, I got to the toilet only to find 30 / 40 women inside. (No, I wasn’t in the ladies) Oooookay I thought, this must be normal here – so I got in the queue of sweaty intoxicated morons who were talking about what topping to get on their pizza after the gig and eventually bagged myself a cubicle. After being in there for three or four minutes I started to wonder what those noises were in the cubicle next to me – next thing I knew a man who was about to erupt a Technicolor wave of puke came busting in my cubicle like some new york cop bashing in a door of a drug bust. We stared at each other for what seemed forever, me sat on the toilet with my trousers down, him holding his mouth and trying not to let the waves of puke that were lashing around the inside of his gob spill from his fingers.
I shut the door, a few cubicles down I heard him puking violently and his “friend” rubbing his back and telling him to “let it all out”. This was coupled with well, the couple in the cubicle next to mine shagging. The whole thing sounded like a bizarre symphony. Next the wails of girls waltzing in the bathroom like a bunch of drunk slappers was my que to leave.
So I left, squeezing past the queue of mixed sex, blokes finishing their toilet breaks and waggling their cocks at passing women. Some guy said to me on the way out – “is that woman in the cubicle next to you offering blow jobs?” I shrugged and left.
Back in the main venue I reflected on my bathroom ordeal and actually found it quite hilarious. Telling my girlfriend over the loud prog-rock playing over the PA I think something may have been lost in all the noise – but I like to think she found it mildly amusing. Whilst I was telling her this a very messed up skinhead collapsed on the floor and hit his head on the wall on his way down. I saw him in my peripheral vision and had the chance to catch him, but I was so caught up in telling all of my toilet experience I didn’t. He spent the next 20 minutes outside the fire escape with St. Johns Ambulance who got him to fill out a sheet, maybe it was a questionnaire or survey on their service…
So, enough of that. 30 minutes later the Klaxons eventually decided to come on. The crowd went bonkers for the entire set. Which, was the ONLY bad thing about them. You see, having pimped this album around for the best part of 18 months I would have liked to hear some new tracks, this was not the case, instead all of the tracks on the album were played, all very well – but because they only have one album – the set lasted about 45 min. Even the slow boring ones on the album were given a new lease of life. All in all it was fantastic. The crowd were great, the performance was great – even the older people on the balcony seemed to enjoy it. After leaving the venue I decided that they were better than kings of leon. It was a tight performance, they sounded enormous and their space-dance-rock left everyone feeling very happy, I was told by a close friend that they were shit live, this led me not be that excited about the gig as I could have been. I had low expectations.
Excellent all in all. And future note to self – don’t the the opinions of others cloud your judgment.
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