Vukovi/Soeur – Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club – 27 January 2020

By Jason Walker

Less than a week after making a trip to this venue from Manchester for Lebrock, I’m back here to check out Scotland’s pop rockers, Vukovi. After reviewing their latest album, it left a pretty big Impression on me, so I’m crazy excited to see what they do live.

Given that this is a sold-out gig, I’m fully expecting this to be a bit of a rowdy one. In the basement of Hyde Park Book Club there’s a lovely little DIY stage that as I saw last week, is wonderful for small gigs such as this and there’s a real feeling of intimacy so you can get a real feel for an act at their most raw.

Before the bands even start, I’ve grabbed a Vukovi T-shirt because the design is a purple, graffiti-like writing of one of the bits from ‘Run/Hide’, couldn’t resist! On stage you can already see their drummers kit with Vukovi’s trademark V against a loud green background on the front of the bass drum – Vukovi are anything but subtle in their display. Supporting tonight is a band that’s also crossed my radar before, but I’ve never got around to listening to them, Soeur, so hopefully they’ll blow my head off in the same way that Vukovi did recently.

Soeur take to the stage sporting two guitars and drums, no bass player by the looks and start with pounding riffs and some goddamn attitude. They’re barely one song in and they have some fantastic style to them, some wicked harmonising vocals too! There’s a very distinct 60s-esque rock ‘n’ roll meets Hole vibe here, imagine all the drawl of Kings of Leon’s ‘Molly’s Chambers’ mixed in with all the raw attitude of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’.

Honestly the more this set goes on, the more and more I’m impressed by the vocal harmonies working so well but not only that, the guitars bouncing off each other and complimenting each other’s playing with a mix of supporting melodies and chord inversions. They really putting on a class act here and they very clearly have the attention of all the people that have turned up early, and there’s quite a bloody few of them as the rooms almost full! Soeur finish with a song I believe is called ‘I don’t wanna fight anymore’ which is a build up to an incredibly aggressive crescendo and they’ve done a great job of warming the crowd up for the main act, fantastic stuff.

Opening with ‘Violent Minds’ Vukovi have a sound that is larger than life on a stage like this, genuinely was not expecting this to sound so massive! Wasting absolutely zero time, straight into ‘CLAUDIA’ and even in a small venue like this, the moshpit is kicking off, and crowd surfers too! Another banger in the form of ‘Behave’ and I am screaming that chorus right back at them: one of my favourites this!

Moving things up a notch to a first album favourite, ‘And He Lost His Mind’, probably one of my personal favourites from this album too with some crazy frantic playing from Hamish, that infectious start with the “Na na nana na na” it’s enough to get anyone moving. The sheer energy of this show is unreal, and this is after the the bonkers show I was at the previous night (Thy Art Is Murder for reference) and I am so invested in this moment right now.

Announcing they’ve five songs left, they go for another first album banger, ‘Boy George’ and Janine wants to see more bouncing in the audience and she is very much getting it especially with the following ‘All That Candy’. But finishing with ‘Run/Hide’ and ‘La Di Da’ is an absolute master stroke and almost the entire room has just exploded in a massive bouncing pit, what an amazing audience.

I’m aware that I often get super excited about a lot of bands because I do have an absolute love for live music in general, but I really feel like I’m seeing a band here that is destined for massive shows here. Vukovi have this raw and barely contained energy to their live show that is truly a gem and I feel incredibly privileged to witness this in such an intimate venue. I reckon I’ll be seeing these in sold out shows at the likes of the Academy 2 in Manchester very soon. Absolutely outstanding, truly.

The remaining tour dates, in Cheltenham tomorrow (29 January), Kingston Upon Hull on Thursday (30) and Birmingham on Friday (31) are sold out.