Leeds, one of the most exciting and creative cities in the UK, was graced by the fresh and new Constellations Festival last weekend that brought with it the latest in new alternative music and arts. The festival filled three stages across the Leeds University Union including: the intimate underground Mine, the union’s main club and gig venue Stylus and the legendary Refectory, home of many famous past gigs, particularly the recording of ‘The Who Live at Leeds’. A great diversity of acts played, with the headliners of Four Tet, Broken Social Scene and Sleigh Bells, as well as a fair share of local Leeds talent. Like all small day festivals Constellations suffered from clashes of some of the best acts, particularly to my dismay the end of Local Natives and The Vaccines.

I began my day by sampling some of the musical delight that turned out to be Nottingham based Dog Is Dead. Playing in ‘Mine’, the smallest of the university’s stages, they supplied their audience with a treat of wonky pop with energetic saxophone solos and great vocal harmonies while sounding distinctive from other such acts like The Mystery Jets. Only playing for around a year, receiving praise for their great performance on the BBC introducing stage at Glastonbury, they finished on their new single ‘Young’. A great start to the day. After crossing the union to the large and spacious Refectory, Leeds local band Sky Larkin took to the stage and laid down an impressive set, which, to my surprise was much heavier than I had expected from the three of them. They played a selection of tracks from their second record ‘Kaleide’ with my particular favourite being ‘Still Windmills’, a crowd rousing tune followed by lead singer Katie Harkins praising the festival and explaining their honour of playing on a stage with other major acts.

Dog Is Dead Young by KARTEL

Remaining in the Refectory, Sky Larkin was followed by the spectacular Esben and the Witch. While I was immediately drawn to the bands similarity to The Horrors I was quickly reminded of their musical uniqueness. Providing an echoing and darker sound demonstrated the range and diversity of the event, their lack of a drummer was no problem for the band who filled the set with a selection on interesting drumming styles from group smashing of a floor tom, to the guitarists throwing himself off stage and on to the barrier hammering a drum right into the audience, though these did add some variety to what could have been a predictable set.

Sky Larkin – Still Windmills by brilliantlydifferent

Eumenides – Esben and The Witch by Mewbox

The impressive Local Natives graced the Refectory’s stage late in afternoon explaining that it would be one of their last shows before returning home to Los Angeles to record a second album. The set was unsurprisingly epic. The band is unfaultable live and this was no exception, the usual atmospheric chanting and lively guitars filled the room. Their cover of Talking Heads ‘Warning Sign’ was one of the highlights of the gig. Unfortunately missing the last few songs of the band, I headed back down to Mine to assess the hype surrounding the band The Vaccines. Sour faced acoustic champion Jay Jay Pistolet’s new band, which if you haven’t heard, are an obvious throwback to the Ramones and a more punkish era. Although the set could have been regarded as similar throughout, a debatable fault of the style of music, it was nevertheless energetic, exciting and refreshing.

The Vaccines, ‘Wreckin’ Bar’ by Tim Chester NME

While catching a few brief minutes of Les Savy Fav, whose set was later described to me as ‘incredible, ridiculous, riotous and religious’, which I was gutted I missed, I headed back to the Refectory. Los Campesinos! Witchita’s eight-piece indie pop heroes were next. After waiting patiently for the late start, fair enough for the large numbers of instruments they had to organise, Los Campesinos! raced through their great rage of superb indie tracks. Half way through the set they played ‘You, Me, Dancing’, debatably one of the best Indie Pop dance tunes of the last 5 years, I was reminded of the sheer brilliance of the band. Graced with a few extra essential minutes by the headliners of the Refectory Broken Social Scene, the band played a few more classics before all coming to the front of the stage to sing the final lines of ‘Sweet Dreams/ Sweet Cheeks’ “One blink for yes, two blinks for no, sweet dreams sweet cheeks Sweet Dreams, Sweet cheeks we leave alone’ in choral unison, which the crowd joined in enthusiastically.

For its first run, Constellations festival exceeded all expectations, providing its crowds with the best in new artists, an electric atmosphere and an incredible day of music.

About the Guest Author
Will Woodward is a twenty year old history student at Leeds University. Originally from Norwich and born with a love music, he has recently started writing gig and record reviews and currently co-hosts the ‘Hair of the Dog Show’ at 2pm on Sundays on LSRfm.