Leeds Wharf Chambers

by Bob Oram

FOLLOWING their knock-out video Are You Ready People earlier this year, Interrobang?! have plenty to live up to as they take the stage for this much-anticipated homecoming gig.

They surge straight into Taciturn, with Dunstan Bruce using a megaphone to tell us: “I'm so taciturn, I'd nod to answer a question on the radio.” The music's an inspired mash-up of influences, creating a post-modern agitpunk driven by Griffin's stark and angular guitar sounds, with drummer Harry Hamer following the riff which the former loops before overlaying another sequence on top.

Skillful to say the least, Hamer maintains an incredibly tight platform on which Bruce then lays bare his angst at turning 50, yet on Here Now he confirms that he's “still got something to say, I don't want to fade away” and on Mad as Hell he's on the point of exploding as he he tells us that he's “not gonna take this anymore ... I will not calm down.”

Curmudgeon is pure passion and Do You Remember? beautiful, taut, intricate and intense. Interrobang?! are a project that clearly had to happen and who knows how long it will last. But tonight is truly memorable and Bruce's open-hearted confessional gets its response on the dance floor — the audience love it.

At the set's climax Hamer's drumming brings Terence Fletcher in the film Whiplash to mind, Griffin's guitar playing is truly exceptional and the Bruce's charisma mesmerises as he asks: “Am I Invisible Yet?” Certainly not.

Crammed onto the stage, Leeds virgins Thee Faction never fail to deliver.

Single of the year Choose your Enemy introduces their own unique political pop revelry to the north and with the horn section clearly enjoying leading the line their swing gets the audience moving. Billy is theatricality personified, the vocal harmonies and interplay at the end of 366 are simply brilliant, while Nylon's guitar work is superb on GDH Cole and newly-wed Dai is a rock-steady as ever on drums.

They're gloriously entertaining and songs like Rent Strike, Wages and Union Man are not only great tunes but essential weapons in the face of this governments attacks. Every home needs a Thee Faction album, so think on this Xmas.

Psychic Graffiti spin a wonderful collection of tunes at the co-operatively run Wharf Chambers to round off what is an awesome night.