Christopher Nosnibor
After an hour of 90s dance and indie, the PA switches to ‘Monkey Gone to Heaven’ and then ‘Disorder’ by New Order just as Ecce Shnak are due on. This is only partially representative of the eye-popping contrasts which define an unusual – but thoroughly fun – Sunday night in Leeds.
Ecce Shnak have been on my radar for a while, and the one thing you can guarantee from them is that whatever they do, it’ll be nothing you would have ever expected. This includes featuring on the recent single by EMF, ‘LGBTQ+ Lover’.
Yes, EMF have recent singles… Much maligned as one-hit wonders, they’ve been busy with new music in recent years, and while many of their live outings have been at retro festivals, they’ve remained a touring act in their own right. Tonight’s show is the final stop on a five-week tour of the US and Europe.
So, while I was eager to witness Ecce Shnak live, I was also curious how they’d go down with this crowd. They’re hardly similar to the headliners in style, and I’ve witnessed some quality supports receive dismal receptions from fans only interested in hearing the hits from the band they’ve paid to see.
They arrive in a tempest of wild racket and opera, and it’s little short of dizzying, and instead of focusing on promoting previous releases, they drop a new song, ‘Owned Thyself’ second. Everything about the band is off the wall, with a 5-string bass and HOW many stings on that headless guitar? The neck is about 4” thick. They plunder prog and jazz elements, and the songs leap and lurch from here to there… and then they drop ‘Velociraptor Swayze’… It’s such a crazy, shackleless work, it feels like a gamble, but it’s at this point people start moving, and coming forward.
Ecce Shnak
‘Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy’ – a song about Jeremy Bentham – goes heavy but still with operatic interventions. They go for the heavy finish to the set with ‘Fight Song’ followed by ‘Katie’s Wart’, going full-on growling metal. By rights, they should have cleared the room. But the crowd absolutely love it. There’s no question that Ecce Shnak have won them over, but it’s equally apparent that this is an audience open to the idea of something different, and for that, respect is very much due. There are no loud-talking lairy tossers, and everyone is clearly here to enjoy themselves, and not at the detriment of anyone else. There’s a woman waving a glowstick. It’s truly lovely.
Ecce Shnak
And EMF are very much here to give them a good time. EMF were never really one-hit wonders – although one hit is still more than the vast majority of bands achieve – and they front-load the set with a string of bangers that gets the crowd energised early. Despite having five albums to their credit, two from the last four years, half the set is still taken from debut album Schubert Dip – and fair play. They’re crowd-pleasers, and as a band they don’t only play with enthusiasm and work the crowd, but look to be genuinely elated to be up there. ‘I Believe’ lands second after ‘The Day the Music Died’ oner of just two songs from their last album, The Beauty and the Chaos, a banner for which provides the stage backdrop. Next up, ‘Lies’ maintains the pace. In fact, they don’t do slowies: it’s back-to-back uptempo anthems for the duration.
EMF
Homage to clubbing ‘Reach for the Lasers’ leads into a 90s dance medley which includes segments of ‘Pump up the Jam’, ‘Insomnia’, ‘Breathe’… and ‘Blue Monday’. Mid-set, ‘Children’ got the whole place bouncing like crazy. James talks of how he quit teaching for this, having taught in Keighley for some ten years, and how this is a homecoming show to conclude the tour, and the reception certainly makes it feel like one.
EMF
Aural Aggravation 