The Leeds band bring a fresh set to Milton Keynes.

It’s been a busy year or so at PABS towers. After signing to Alcopop! and the subsequent release of new single First World Problems at the end of last year, in May they announced founding member James Brown had left for new projects, precipitating a reshuffle that involved Robert Lee moving to guitar, Owen Griffiths from fellow Leeds’ band Blacklisters guesting on bass with frontman Tom Hudson ditching his axe altogether! Phew.   

A band that once proclaimed themselves as “too heavy for indie kids, too indie for heavy kids” are now promising to “cut the fat” and push for a simple, direct and more minimalistic approach; a far cry from the trademark duelling guitars and stage scaffold-climbing of a decade ago but no less ambitious.   

New album Reality Cheques delivers this new front: opening tracks Pipe Dream and Rinse and Repeat are singular and unassuming. There’s almost a refrain to it, an intrigue. One might even say maturity.

That being said, it takes precisely three songs tonight until Tom is topless, much like a Yorkshire Kiedis he stares down his audience, begging them to play. When that doesn’t quite happen he’s off, mic stand in tow, whipping up a frenzy.  2012’s V.E.N.O.M is thrown in for good measure and it fits. You can almost see the soul of this band, the genesis of what makes them such essential viewing despite their recent disruptions. Their core remains.

It doesn’t quite feel like five years since the last album The Haze was released but, when its time for eponymous debut album bangers’ High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive and time-honoured set closer I Punched a Lion in the Throat, some of the erstwhile mildly subdued Craufurd crowd finally come to life and we’re transported to 2010 again. Sweat drips from the ceiling. Tom’s writhing around on the floor. It’s a simpler time. Irony isn’t in vogue right now. No one’s taking selfies. It’s only another ten years until the pandemic hits. Maybe things can be different this time and we can stop it before it happens. Maybe. Probably not. This band will definitely survive it. 

Reality Cheques is out now via Alcopop! Records.