A bitingly cold quiet Sunday evening in Leeds, The Cockpit warmed only by the buzz of expectancy awaiting Wild Flag. Witchita Records Brighton/London three piece Peggy Sue sustained everyone’s interest with a fine support performance. The dual girl harmonies and folk tinged indie well received, especially during numbers as strong as ‘Cut My Teeth’ and ‘Song & Dance’, check them out.
A sign of Wild Flags high held regard was reflected by the presence of two thirds of The Cribs and Anna from Metronomy amongst several expectant band members in the packed crowd. Wild Flag, a Supergroup of sorts, many present sure to be admirers of the four girls many various bands. Me personally being a big fan of Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss’s Sleater Kinney, a band whom I sadly never got to see, the closest being a band injury cancelled gig at this very venue in 2005. Rrrrriot Girl royalty and finally I was getting to see them Rrrrrock. And boy do they rock. This brand of power pop punk went down a treat with album highlights like ‘Electric Band’ and ‘Glass Tambourine’ and the perfect catchy gems that are ‘Future Crimes’ and ‘Romance’. Multi -talented, sometime comedy actor back home in Portland, six string Brownstein, shares vocals and competes with Mary Timony for riff wizardry and high kickerry. Rebecca Cole adds punchy keyboards with hints of the B-52’s, while Weiss holds it all together. Sounds from any number of US garage bands abound, The Stooges , Ramones and especially Patti Smith, as Carrie throws worthy shapes around the stage literally bouncing off Timony. There’s fun band/crowd banter too including a bizarre discussion on the merits of Eric Clapton. No slow hands here as the set raced on with more highlights like ‘Racehorse’ and a finale of a fitting Ramones cover, ‘Do You Wanna Dance?’ , where even the two false starts felt right. I sincerely hope Wild Flag are more than your average Supergroup and continue to record and tour together and keep flying the flag for all that is good in wild rock ‘n’ roll.
Liam Tyrell
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