Concorde2, 25th July 2008

Concorde2 opened its doors to the mighty neon love children known as Hadouken!, a band hailed as “rather bloody good actually!” by a local sort as I entered. After witnessing the sea of short-haired floppy peroxide fringes, I notice a mass of organised water dispensers which I initially assumed would be needed as ninety percent of the acne and brace combinations would have trouble being served anything at the bar. I later realised that the organisers were merely preparing for a series of adolescent breakdowns at the feet of these Leeds boys.Immediate impressions established, but when the rolling bass and vocal “Booyah!” kicked in, the floor quite literally shook. An overwhelming energy was constantly fed by the fast-paced vocal presentation and obviously well-rehearsed performance. It was the last show from the headline tour of the album released on their own label Surface Noise Records and boy, could you tell it! With such an amalgamation of noises synonymous with The Prodigy, One Minute Silence and the more recent Klaxons, the band played incessantly through their set list. Exasperated crowd banter in between songs merely enforced their disputed grime influences which beamed onto the crowd.

It was very hard to distinguish between tracks which created a serious monotony nearer the end of the show but as long as you take them with, as most of the crowd had, a bit of “something”, I’m sure the ongoing barrage would do the job. Let’s just say that with lyrics like “Set this track as your default ringtone, bring your drinks and alcohol” any current songwriters should sleep calm tonight. All in all, whether contrived or otherwise, these kids know how to play to expectation and generally have a good time onstage, so good luck to them. Check out their cover of “Breathe” by The Prodigy, boo-yah!

 

Words by Tom Sargeant