Blood Red Shoes - The Cockpit, Leeds 12/5/2012 Live Review 2012

As 9 o'clock draws ever nearer, the crowd push ever closer to the front as the last few songs play over the stereo, a stage with a red backdrop, vintage television and lights scattered across the stage in-between amps and the drum kit starts to light up with a distinct red glow across it. The anticipation for Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell to enter the stage grows with each passing second; once the sound of static from the TV increases more and more and the lights drop even further down the crowd know exactly what's coming next.

First Steven, who sits behind his kit holding his drumstick aloft as he and the crowd wait for Laura-Mary, who eventually enters with a drink in hand and a sense of disinterest that suits the bands punk-roots ethic to a tee.

Straight away the band surprise, going straight into 'It's Getting Boring By the Sea' from their first album. The band does this throughout the set, mixing new and old tracks with each one being greeted by rapturous applause. The duo are crowd pleasers in its truest sense, they don't want to go on stage to play their new album form start to finish, they know what the audience want to hear and their going to play exactly that.

The duo uses what they have at their disposal to great effect, in particular the lighting in utilised greatly. When 'Cold' reaches the climax of the chorus that is "take a step out into the daylight" the whole of the venue lights up right on cue, enough to send shivers down anybody's spine. The pair are a treat to behold live and they couldn't have done more to entertain the crowd, when they leave the stage for the first time there's no way that the crowd are letting them get away the easily - they come back out for a three song encore which even then does feel like enough. The best bands always do leave their audience hanging.

Joe Wilde