Friday 25/08/06 Day 1 @ Leeds Festival, Bramham Park, Leeds

In the absence of Glastonbury, Leeds has managed to corner a fair proportion of freaks. No longer are they confined to the deviant fields of Avalon, this new breed of chic freak are abundant, dressed with a catatonic wit and the vacant imagination of a cabbage. Yes it’s fun, yet when confronted with a man with a face of a horse, or a body of a can of Spam, fun turns to fear. Because with a festival reactionist (a reaction terrorist – copyright of Gigwise) their kinetic potential lies in their unpredictability and ability to prove they are the zaniest, like those pricks with ADIHASH t-shirts. But today Leeds festival needs reaction terrorists to fight against crowd apathy and bolster spirits, because if they can’t its some of the music may not.

Kharma 45 aren’t terrorists of any form, but they are thieves out to pilfer Killer’s style pop, an exercise that may prove fruitful but one suspects they’re a little late to the party? Gigwise is never late, in-fact we’re early for Tapes ‘n Tapes but cant help feeling we’ve somehow missed the party. Following on from a seemingly ecstatically received Metric (we catch last song which sounds like a fatbodied Karen O number) Tapes ‘N Tapes struggle and maybe its because we cant quite pigeon-hole them, but, today at least, their syncopated rhythms and weird desert rock leave us confused like a bad joke…

Leeds quartet iForward Russia! are fundamentally playing to 5,000 friends and family and as ever deliver 100percent%. A heaving crowd kneel (metaphorically of-course) before the Russian as Tom’s piercingly vicious delivery claims converts. An emphatically received ‘13’ is unshaken by technical problems and crowns a fantastic set.

Which is more than can be said for Hope of the States whose set is shafted by what must be a deaf sound engineer. Consequently Hope of The States are barley listenable and their decision NOT to air the brilliant ‘Sing It Out’ is the only saving grace. Arriving early for headliners Pearl Jam has unfortunately placed us in an unsavoury position… in front of Placebo. It’s around this time we pray for a reaction terrorist, or any such distraction from the nasal whine of Molko. Having said that ‘Nancy Boy’ does sound more acceptable live.

The appearance of Pearl Jam is a rare treat and although many people here might not be too au fait with material post ‘Vitalogy’, the opportunity to witness classics such as ‘Alive’, is too big to be whittled away. Opening with ‘Go’  and preceding to play a set-list including ‘Animal’, ‘Even-flow’, ‘Corduroy’ and ‘Daughter’, the Seattle grungers are ever the consummate professionals and simply awesome. ‘Not For You’ precedes a set defining ‘State Of Love and Trust’ which gets a rare outing. ‘Alive’ finally appears during the encore during which Eddie dedicates “keep on rocking in a free world” to a dream he had of George Bush “****ing” the previous night. 

Thoughts of Pearl jam’s importance within today’s music industry are fickle and short sighted, a band with this much live competence, this many amazing songs are immensely important. Tonight in Leeds they’re so important they make the day’s line-up irrelevant, long may they continue.