Gig review: Idles at Project House, Leeds

If Leeds is looking to move to a zero carbon energy position, the city could do worse than harness the heat coming from Crash Records’s presumably glowing telephone hotline to the major UK record labels. Established since 1985, recent years have seen the independent record store secure some of the biggest names to play surprise, pop-up gigs that both promote albums and support the city’s live music ecosystem.

The latest was Bristolian punks Idles, announced at Project House only 48 hours earlier. Such is the band’s pull, the gig sold out in no time. It could have been reasonably expected that this would be a toned down, last-minute affair, almost an afterthought, but none of those adjectives come close to describing the driving energy that Idles generate in every live performance.

Supporting latest release Tangk and penultimate set track Dancer aside, it’s a more low key, forceful form of music which, when interjected throughout the set with the more upbeat previous releases, makes for a complete and rounded set.

Proudly brandishing his ‘Don’t Mess with Yorkshire’ T-shirt, lead singer Joe Talbot stomps and shouts his way round the stage, the new music displaying a huge step forward both musically and vocally.

Unsurprisingly, the set contains eight tracks from the new album and a smattering of more familiar tracks to maintain the energy levels. Opening with IDEA 01, performed in near darkness, it’s the duo of Gift Horse and Mr Motivator that naturally creates a mosh pit, drinks and people alike being thrown around with abandon.

It’s unrelenting from this point which considering the band had also performed a late afternoon set, is nothing short of remarkable.

There’s the now expected and heartfelt thanks from Talbot for the very existence of Idles dragging him out of his previous life and enabling nights like this. This is a band who get tighter on every performance, the upcoming extensive UK, US and European tours will only solidify this.

There wasn’t time for such follies as encores, just bring the set to a close with Dancer, probably their most accessible track, and Rottweiler from 2018’s Joy as an Act of Resistance, an out and out frenetic punk five minutes.

The closest the band get back to a return visit to Leeds in 2024 is as part of Halifax’s Piece Hall’s impressive summer roster. It should be close enough to still feel the force.