Pissed Jeans, Belgrave Music Hall - Leeds, Sunday August 16th (LIVE REVIEW)

Like lambs to the slaughter, Leeds' noise lovers have assembled in The Belgrave for a rare and only UK date outside of London by Pennsylvania's finest - Pissed Jeans. Two years ago, our fair city hosted the quartet's mighty racket in The Brudenell, prior to that, well lets just say it had been a while since we'd seen the band on these shores.

If you know Pissed Jeans, you'll know they do this rock thing on their terms. No pandering to a crowd or a sniff of a 'How you doing?' etc. Let's start at the encore. The drummer appearing to be the only member bothering to return to do another song. "Just you and me..." as he plays a hard-hitting rhythm expecting us to do.... something?? The rest of the band shuffle back on, singer Matt Korvette drenched in a sweat-heavy unbuttoned shirt chews on a fresh banana for the duration of the next song. As the final ear-blistering feedback of 'Bathroom Laughter' brings the whole damn thing to a close, the bass player is already packing away his gear. Not that they don't enjoy themselves up there.

It's hard to tell, granted. Especially from the face of Korvette. He alternates between contorted, twisting and yelling mad-man, and a dead stare out into the sea of happy or bewildered faces beneath him. Most of which are thoroughly engaged in this and his performance. It's the not knowing isn't it? The not knowing of just exactly what's going to happen next. Uncertainty, curiosity, and a slight nervousness you feel from Korvette's stage presence. In the hour just gone, they've charged through a hefty dose of most recent album 'Honeys' with the likes of 'Health Plan' and 'Romanticize Me' sounding particularly raucous in the Belgrave's hall. Korvette has stalked every inch of the stage, busted out the most random of 'dance' moves, taken the drummers stool, and told us there had been a mix up in scheduling as they were in fact not Pissed Jeans but The Get Up Kids (who were playing across town in The Key Club). 'False Jessi Part 2' and 'Half Idiot' from 'King Of Jeans' are typically gloriously unhinged Pissed Jeans classics, and it falls to perhaps the song of the evening 'She Is Science Fiction' to really stir a Sunday night crowd into a bit of a frenzy.   

Thanks for coming back so soon fellas.

Words - Pete Jackson

Pissed Jeans on Sub Pop