Sundays are a bit boring aren’t they? There’s usually nothing fun to do other than dread Monday mornings… unless you’re in Y Plas this evening (not the Great Hall as previously advertised) for Yorkshire’s finest postpunk prodigies Yard Act. The band’s recent album Where’s My Utopia? hit the UK top five upon its release earlier this month, and they’re in town on tour in support of the same.
Opening with An Illusion, the band are subdued at first… but not for long as multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Lauren Fitzpatrick and Daisy Smith move from the back of the stage to cavort around frontman James Smith for the first time this evening for Dead Horse. This is quickly followed by When The Laughter Stops which sees James fall to the floor and ‘beaten up’ by Lauren and Daisy before Petroleum really starts to ramp up the energy even further.
There’s a little treat tonight too with 2022’s Land Of The Blind – which, the band inform us, “we didn’t do in Bristol last night” and is where guitarist Sam Shipstone shows off what Smith calls his “magic”, adding that this may be Yard Act’s best-ever airing of this song.
The songs from Where’s My Utopia? might sound brilliant live, especially We Make Hits, Dream Job, and Fizzy Fish, but there’s also something for the people who liked the band “before we were successful”. A wheel is brought on stage containing tracks from the band’s debut EP and more while two fans, Jake and Kyla, are brought up to spin the wheel! They may be hoping to hear The Trapper’s Pelts tonight – they’re coaxed to tell the room that, at any rate – but it’s not to be as the wheel gives Dark Days and the deep cut Human Sacrifice (which only one person cheered for when the options on the wheel are read out…).
Polishing off the main set with The Overload and A Vineyard For The North, Yard Act return for the encore with 100% Endurance before something truly brilliant and mental occurs for The Trench Coat Museum. The stage becomes packed as the support band Gustaf return to dance around the band before Murkage Dave himself pops up to provide some vocals – turning the song into a rave, it’s beautiful brilliant chaos and it wraps up a proper, bloody good gig.
Yard Act, Y Plas, Cardiff University Students Union, Sun 24 Mar
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS
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