LIVE: The Assist, April, Trampolene & Aztec Temples @ The Crumblin Cookie, Leicester 12.09.15

Leicester’s prize venue, The Crumblin Cookie was host to The Assist, April, Trampolene and Aztec Temples, as part of This Feeling’s Rock n Roll night out.

The Assist had a neat little following and pulled in a respectable crowd for the opening set. Adorned in white jeans and a vintage bomber jacket, the curly haired brummie had great front man quality about him, owning the small space that he was provided for the night. Their style was fairly unique, in that mid song they would juxtapose their sound, mashing up what could have been two different songs. The practiced changes were seamless and his vocals echoed that of Wombats, Matthew Murphy.

Though the venue was small, it was full of brazen egos, all with their fan girl following, mums included. Band number two, April had the whole package. Britpop vibes, mod haircuts and the token tambourine. The five piece of Nuneaton, owned the stage with well-rehearsed riffs and a slice of Britpop pie that everyone wanted a second helping of. They have obviously taken a lot of influence from Oasis, The Enemy and other Indie heavyweights, but they did it in their own way, with a slightly heavier sound. I loved the live element to singer George Cooke’s voice, with its imperfect raucousness. They ended with ‘Feel’ which for me was the best song of the night. It was chilled with a sense of Lenny Kravits’ ‘Fly Away’ mixed in to the guitar effects. They needed no farewell speech and let the song speak for itself, finishing on a high with rapturous applause.

Welsh three piece Trampolene seemed a little nervous as they began their set. “I’m going to start by telling you a bit about myself”. As vocalist Jack Jones began his poem of playground tales, it was at first unclear if this was part of the song, but the added chaotic distortion reassured us. The set was played with amps turned up to 11 and the sheer volume and sporadic guitar playing was at times a hindrance to any structural form, but this was another example of a ferocious Trampolene in action. Jones demonstrated a youthful play on his song writing using childish themes throughout such as “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ketamine”.

If you were to anticipate the next band judging on their audience turn out, then Aztec Temples would surely have been the best band of the night with their headlining slot. Their performance was somewhat robotic and songs were very short however they did have a good sense of belonging and they all looked well formed as a group. With a bit more flamboyance injected in to their performance, they may have attracted some new followers.

April were the ones to watch last night, they ticked all of the boxes and brought back a fresh take on a much loved Indie vibe. And with this, it made The Crumblin Cookie seem ever more exclusive to Leicester.

Natasha Moran

@natashamoran

Tash Moran

Tash Moran

Leicester based writer and photographer