The Breeders / Jim Noir

Manchester's Jim Noir kicks off tonight with his sixty's sounding electronic pop. A little like Badly Drawn Boy mixed with The Beach Boys, his upbeat songs lift the mood of the crowd on this cold spring evening.

'What U Gonna Do' is a lovely piece of jolly pop, perfect for the summer. There’s no songs about the state of the world here, just catchy casio keyboard laden tracks about clouds, neighbour's keeping hold of footballs and ships. Great if nonsense stuff.

The Breeders waste no time tonight. Playing for little over an hour, we are all out of the door for 10.15pm. Maybe it's the age of the band members (now off the drugs and into knitting and looking after the folks), or the fact that the majority of their songs are played at breakneck speed (for grunge music, that is).



Kim Deal looks to relishing the atmosphere, as is twin sister Kelley. Both look to have made no effort in dressing fancy for the event, just jeans and baggy jumpers (though with a tag like grunge goddess attached to you, who cares?).

It's been six years since the successful side project of the former Pixies bassist came to our shores, and that long since we heard anything new by the band. The setlist is full of songs from their twenty year career, but oddly the encore is full of new tracks, with the old hits left to sit in the middle.

Kim asks the crowd if they want to hear an old song or a new song, to which the majority of the crowd answer "Old!". She then decides to scrap 'We're Gonna Rise', a slow spoken jumble of a song, and jump to 'Son Of Three'. Kelley does not look amused, and I imagine for one second as she removes her guitar that she might leave the stage. Thankfully my mind is wrong and she picks up another guitar.



"I like coming to Leeds, because you have the Corn Exchange that reminds me of a place back home in Ohio." reminisces Kim. Little does she know that it is now empty of the fabulous independent shops that made it unique and full of yet more food halls. No wonder the UK has an obesity problem, there's no shops left to walk around, only places to stuff your face!

'Divine Hammer' and 'Cannonball' with it's wavy riff and foghorn introduction are the obvious hits with the crowd, who are quite on the older side, so there's not as much moshing and screaming as at many a gig these days.

Kelley's higher pitched sweet vocals work excellently with her sister's lower range, as if duel (Deal) layered vocals. After a sweet cover of The Beatle's 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' the encore is full of newbies, ending with 'German Studies', sang by the twins in German. "I have to do an interview in German next week, I can't wait." says Kelley in an under-enthusiastic way.

The sisters are joined on stage by drummer Jose Medeles and bassist Mando Lopez, with a dread-headed girl referred to only as "Cheryl from Florida" helping out with some occasional speedy guitar strumming and vocal work.

This show, though very short, is easily one of the best of 2008 so far, a welcome comeback for the side project usually in the shade of the Pixies or a drugs limbo. Lets hope it isn't another six years before we see them here again (they are playing at a number of festivals this summer, including Bestival and Latitude, so go check 'em out).



Tiff City
No Aloha
Huffer
Bang On
Shocker
Divine Hammer
Night Of Joy
Pager
Son Of Three
Walk It Off
New Year
Cannonball
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Iris
I Just Wanna Get Along
Saints
Safari

Overglazed
Here No More
Fortunately Gone
German Studies

FUTURE GIGS