Monday 12/03/07 Bromheads Jacket, The Yell @ Thekla Social, Bristol

Dance-offs, anti-head-butting law enforcement and a lost pair of glasses: it’s all kicking off in Bristol tonight.

A punked-up music hall sound opens proceedings, courtesy of The Yell.  The Sheffield five-piece look an eclectic bunch (a mix-match of red sequins, tank-top and emo hair) and this is mirrored in their unique sound.  Organ and synths create a spooky undertone to single ‘My Baby’s into Witchcraft’, new tune ‘Animal’ has a circus quality and there’s a whisper of 70’s disco in ‘Party Lounge’.  Front-man Idle Hans’ Yorkshire vocals hold it all together, while Stuart, “the twat” and back-up bass player, challenges bemused bystanders to a dance-off and busts a move like a rampant rabbit on pills.    

Bromheads Jacket blast on stage, all guns blazing with the frenzied single ‘Leslie Parlafitt’, hurtling through a mixed set of thundering, manic punk tunes and slower vocal-focused tracks like ‘Poppy Bird’. The band is at its strongest in the full-on, punk-fuelled numbers.  The jabbing, stabbing guitars and cascading drums of ‘Fight Music’, ‘Going Round to Av’ and a new song, yet to be named, draw more into the pit to its biggest ever in Bristol.  But this is soon halted by security enforcing a new “no-head-butting” law.  Lead singer Tim jumps off stage to see what’s happening and to defend the right to mosh.  Things then go from the sublime to the ridiculous when the music stops and everybody starts searching for a missing pair of glasses…

The band are soon back on track with the crowd-pleasing jibe at McDonalds ‘A Trip to the Golden Arches’ and the raucous finale ‘What If's and Maybes’. For the obligatory encore Tim comes back to sing Rosie, just his guitar, mic and closest fans around him. Impressive stuff.