Today I was shooting at a venue I hadn’t heard of before, “Project House” in Leeds. Before arriving, I was Imagining a no-barrier venue about the size of a 250 cap. Imagine my shock when I turned up and realised it was a renovated warehouse location that was massive. And in this space, we’re graced with the headliner, Movements.
Webbed Wing is our opener tonight. The 3-piece American band came on the stage promptly. Within a couple of minutes, they started playing their 2000-punk-sunset-drive-sounding tunes. The crowd were enjoying the vibe (the majority stood up to watch) but no movement (ba dum dum – I will probably do this every time I say that word) was seen from the pit.
The band had good stage banter with the tired audience. I asked them if anyone was out there, which was met with a meek “woo”. The singer laughed at how pathetic that sounded, which earned chuckles from the audience, he then shortly followed up saying he was “tired too”. The singer also spoke about how he was a massive smoker, which was met with the loudest “WOO” so far from the audience and was approaching 48 hours without some weed. Luckily though, he’d bought some today and was “gonna smoke a pound after the gig.” Once again, a cheer erupted (with added applause this time).
Each song was met with as much a “woo” as the crowd could muster on a Thursday night. The band themselves have a great live sound. Each member owns their space and role. It would’ve been great to see them switch places when they weren’t stuck at the mic, especially with how big the stage was.
Softcult is, from what I can assume based on the socials, a Canadian 2-piece band with two touring members. They describe themselves as “music for mall goths.” Softcult came onto the stage and got into their if-rock-went-lo-fi sound. I could see people swaying to the music and just feeling their vibe. About 99% of the crowd were standing for them when they came on.
The vocalist has great control performing live whilst also playing the guitar (imagine my shock when all of a sudden, at the end of their set, she showed her ability to do harsh vocals). She’s backed up by the drummer and other guitarists, who know how to harmonise with her voice well enough to add to her vocals and not take away from it. Each member did perform well tonight, I could see them moving and almost all that could be moshing and head bobbing – even the drummer at points.
I loved the synth-esque effect they’d added to one of the guitars for some songs. It added to the atmosphere and brought you into the world they wanted to create. Every song was met with a cheer and clap, regardless of the fact no one was actively moshing and pushing around. This isn’t really the type of band to crowd surf or mosh heavily to, but you can definitely have a good time with a drink in hand and just take in the soft vocals and mellow beats of the songs.
There wasn’t much crowd interaction going on, I think the vocalist only addressed the crowd to introduce themselves and the songs and thanks towards the end of the set. Seeing as I completely got the vibe wrong for tonight (for some reason I thought this would be heavy moshing and crowd surfers for every song), I’m intrigued to see how Movements interact and what kind of energy the crowd will have for them.
Gearing up for our headliner to come on, I took a look around the crowd to see what other music people were fans of. I could see shirts for Counterparts, Turnstile, Sleep Token (me also repping the spooky boys), Bring Me The Horizon and Holding Absence. I’ll go out on a limb and say this band is probably most popular with millennial and Gen Z rock fans (which isn’t a bad thing by the way, if anything it’s good because it means this band are currently part of the rock renaissance happening right now).
Movements are a 4-piece band with one touring member, formed in 2015. They have had a mix of genres attached to them such as post-hardcore, emo and punk. They are here in the UK promoting their new album, “RUCKUS!”. The album has been met with great praise and already has multiple songs hitting over the 1 million mark on streaming platforms.
Coming onto the stage to a flurry of cheers and claps, the band got into their set with a bang. The crowd is more lively now than at any point during the supports. Now they’re awoken and ready to sweat. Within the first two songs, there was a rush of crowd surfers, the photographers for tonight having to vacate the photo pit (shame, so most of us just settled on standing on benches hence the numerous pictures of the crowd).
Movements opened with a new one, “You’re One of Us Now”, a popular choice it seems among the fans. They then announced that the same enthusiasm they had for their older songs, they wanted to see with the new songs from their newly released album. The fans cheered, their part of the contract was now signed. The vocalist coaxes the crowd to jump when the chorus hits, the entire front and middle of the pit already leaving the floor.
The vocalist had great crowd interaction. It felt casual and he had great confidence in handling them. He would command them to jump, announce each song with a burst of energy and compliment the crowd on their eagerness.
Every member of the band that wasn’t at the back had a great spirit about them and was constantly on the move. The singer especially. It would’ve been cool to see them change places and the like, with how big the stage is it can feel empty in places if the performers aren’t actively using it all. The singer and two front guitarists were constantly acknowledging the crowd as they played, with eye contact and passing off the lyrics. The performance was greatly supported by a great lighting design on the venue’s part.
After every song, the singer thanked the crowd for the applause and cheers. It was great to see this band interact and bring that energy up in the crowd. The band are one of the most popular bands going for this genre and generation and it’d be a shame if you couldn’t catch them whilst they’re in the UK. The band currently have around 5 more dates in the UK promoting their newest album, whilst also giving homage to their fan faves, before heading off to Australia next year.
Photography: Jayne Slater
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