Possibly the hardest working band in the country, Yard Act deliver a set laced with dry wit and biting political undertones as they close out what could be a career defining year.
Since releasing their debut album The Overload in January of this year, the band have been on tour constantly. A series of instores saw them deliver 16 shows (!!) in release week alone; summer festival appearances included the likes of SXSW, Glastonbury, End Of The Road, Pukkelpop and Rock en Seine, and multiple passes through the UK, Europe and North America filled in the gaps up until their royally-delayed performance as nominees at the 2022 Mercury Prize. It seems somewhat unfair that, four weeks out from Christmas, they’re back on the road yet again for one more go around. Selfishly though, fans can’t have too much of a good thing, as tonight’s sold out show in Glasgow proves.
The audience at Queen Margaret Union is made up of the typical mix; uni students, indie Millennials and Radio 6 dads. Most get in early enough to experience the dynamic dance party that is Acid Klaus. The project is a vehicle for the creative electronic genius of celebrated Sheffield artist-DJ-producer Adrian Flanagan and features vocals from Maria Uzor and Maxine Peake. Some don’t know what to make of Flanagan’s dry aggression and self-deprecation between songs – he threatened to kill everyone if the last song got cut off for running over time – but there seems to be agreement that the music is very good fun. The crowd is loosened up, muscles warmed, ready for the headliners.
Yard Act take to the stage around 9pm and after a sharp, voracious introduction from singer and lyricist James Smith, they launch into a sequence of lucid vignettes that play out with the juddering cinematography of a Handycam. The disillusionment of post-Brexit Britain looms large throughout but particularly on early tracks Dead Horse and Land of the Blind. Chock full of dry-wit and irony, these songs don’t so much point the finger as they do turn an inward eye. The improvised angularity of Smith’s melodies when performing live produce shapes and colours that occasionally clash or contrast with the robust tones of Sam Shjipstone’s guitar but each element finds its place within a greater indie-punk opera. Fixer Upper lands well; a solid fan-favourite that elicits animated audience participation on key punchlines.
A pithy attack on class fetish mentality, Payday, leads into an unexpected but well-pitched cover of The Osmonds’ Crazy Horses. If you can’t perceive the thematic relevance of that, you can at least believe that it rocked! At first Smith tries to pass it off as a new song – not fooling anyone – before introducing an “actual new song”, Dream Job. Joking (or not) about not wanting people filming their unrecorded music, Smith and bassist Ryan Needham then have a brief exchange about the mass exodus they observed at Kaiser Chiefs’ recent arena show when a new song was introduced. The QMU crowd are packed in tight though, no-one makes a move for the bar, or their phones. Dream Job depicts a notably more melodic vocal style from Smith than anything in the existing Yard Act catalogue, with perhaps a fuller overall sound. At any rate, it’s music to look forward to when they can eventually get in and record it.
Despite their repeated deadpanning there is a joy and sincerity about the band’s performance. Smith insists there will be no fake encores on this tour but that “there will be real encores” if audiences demand them. The set is winding up when the “album deep cut” Tall Poppies is introduced to rapturous applause. A usually-6-plus-minutes cradle-to-grave recount of a life lived unremarkably, in the live setting it swells with added instrumental movements, improvised lyrics, and a bountiful saxophone solo as its crowning beauty. The crowd is never not invested 100%, chiming in once again on choice words and phrases. When they sing the first verse of Rich outright Smith can’t suppress his honest delight as he cracks a radiant smile. The crowd are beaming too, laughing knowingly. Someone holds up a giant homemade Yard Act-branded 50p coin before throwing it on the stage. Smith returns it and it’s passed around for the duration of the final three songs.
Their debut’s vibrant and visceral title track The Overload closes out the set to persistent, thunderous applause, cheers, whistles and stamping. True to their word, and as demanded, the band return for an encore. Introducing the endearingly earnest 100% Endurance, Smith commends the crowd for their effervescent energy and continued support for the band, acknowledging the privilege and personal satisfaction of doing what they do. He admits to having had reservations about leaving his young family at home to make this trip but that the audience, their connection, have restored him to the task. And so to the final songs, with all their ferocious humanity on display, the crowd bounce and shout, puncturing the air with fists and voices and vital joy that comes from truly living in the moment.
It’s not hard to see how this kind of life-giving energy could sustain a band through a year as long as Yard Act have had but there can be absolutely no denying, after performances like this, they’ve earned a lie down in December!
Words and pictures: Kendall Wilson @softcrowdclassic