Pulled Apart By Horses concluded their tour to promote their latest album, “The Haze & The Curse Of Papa Lulu”, with a triumphant homecoming gig at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. A night of thunderous music included support slots from Thee MVPs and Tigercub before Leeds frantically welcomed their local heroes. The main room of the venue was full to capacity and there was a real buzz about the place as everyone perceived that they were on the eve of something special.
The night began with a thumping set from Thee MVPs. The band are rapidly gaining a strong reputation to back up their name, and abbreviation of most valuable players, after a string of high profile support slots. They treat their warm-up slot like they are headlining as they thrash out high-energy tracks and thrown themselves around the stage. The receive a very warm reception from the crowd and excelled their brief to warm up the audience.
Next up was another band developing a level of notability for themselves, Tigercub. The Brighton based trio turned things up a notch from where Thee MVPs left off, shaking the room at times with their rumbling bass and crashing cymbals. Tigercub are relentless, each track pins you to the wall and refuses the desist. In your face, brash, noisy and brimming with energy they instantly had the audience onside, and their affect seemed to grow with each passing track.
The excitement in the air was palpable as the moment arrived for Leeds based Pulled Apart By Horses to take to the stage. Despite this being a gig to promote “The Haze & The Curse Of Papa Lulu” this was also a long awaited, and joyous, return to their spiritual home of Brudenell Social Club. As expected the setlist consisted of a fair proportion of tracks from their latest album but their Brudenell friends were also treated to plenty of cuts from their early days and their impressive back catalogue. From the opening of first track “The Haze” the audience was a mass of flailing arms and energetic moshing. The first huge reaction of the night came when they played one of the favourites from their earlier days “I Punched A Lion In The Throat”. The crowd instantly recognised it from the opening bars and subsequently lost control of their senses. The mosh pit became one huge free for all and the reaction induced visible smiles on the faces of the band.
Pulled Apart By Horses seemed to be genuinely loving being back at “The Brude”, not only did they regularly reference how much it meant to them to be back playing there and how fondly they regard the venue, but they also were visibly enjoying themselves on stage. Tracks like “Lizard Baby”, their cover of The Beatles “Helter Skelter” and “V.E.N.O.M” also got massive reactions, as did the appearance of a life-size cutout of Ainsley Harriott. They concluded a high-octane with another classic from their formative years, “High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive”. It was the perfect way to finish a fantastic set which left everyone hoping that next time they don’t leave it quite so long to return.
