LIVE REVIEW: Blood Youth @ The Key Club, Leeds
Harrogate based melodic hardcore four-piece BLOOD YOUTH played to their northern home crowd in Leeds as part of their UK/EU Starve tour. The intimate venue was filled with fans who were fully decked out in the band’s merch and attire.
You could sense the fans’ excitement in the air, which further intensified as the lights dimmed and BLOOD YOUTH’s instrumental sample track {51/50} began playing. And almost instantaneously as the track played, a mosh pit was formed before the band had even stepped onto the stage.
The opening song of their set was their single Spineless of their new album Starve. The fast-paced song with the heavy guitar riffs was the right track to open their set list with as it was aggressive enough to fulfil the cravings of their mosh-pitting crowd but without satisfying them completely. And with the lead singer and bassist further encouraging the crowd to go wild, the mosh pit continued to get bigger and wilder.
But, the peak of the night was reached by the third song, when they began to play one of their older tracks called I Remember. Lead singer Kaya Tarsus screams out the chorus “I remember, when we were younger” with so much passion and force while he pumps his chest with his fist and as the veins on his neck pop with every note and vowel he screams out onto a crowd hypnotised by the power of his voice. Tarsus stands on the edge of the stage looking at and singing to a crowd of people singing the lyrics back to him with the upmost dedication while also headbanging in synch to the loud and aggressive rhythm of his screams.
Nearing the end of their set BLOOD YOUTH play Closure, an old track but undoubtedly a fan favourite one. So, it was more than just a crowd pleaser of a track, it was a crowd-surfing inducer of a track. The band played this track and every other track on their setlist perfectly and with immense passion. But, what made BLOOD YOUTH’s live performance stand out from every other hardcore band is the fact that it doesn’t feel like a performance. Thus, the show feels real, raw and free of any false sense of superiority that some performers carry. And with the youth of today turning up to gigs instead of churches for healing and connection, BLOOD YOUTH make it a team effort between them and their fans to not only scream and sing out their frustrations together but to also feed off each other’s energy to keep going for the night.
So, overall, BLOOD YOUTH give a strong, authentic and passionate live performance. Where every song is played perfectly to every guitar riff, drum beat and scream. However, undoubtably the band’s older tracks are the ones that translated the best with the crowd.
Rating: 8/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Leeds from Rama Alsammouah here:
