Delphic, Leeds Cockpit

From the outset, DIY must make one thing exceptionally clear. There will be two reviews of tonight. One will be of Delphic themselves, the songs played, clarity and performance of those songs, visual entertainment etc. The other shall be of Leeds Cockpit and their organisational skills. As you shall soon see, they will receive drastically opposing scores.

To the good: Delphic themselves. For reasons to be touched upon later (incompetence essentially), we miss a sizeable chunk of Delphic’s performance. What we do see though, is a band who on ‘Acolyte’ touch on the poppier element of electronic music but live have an edge that is difficult to ascertain on such a crisply produced album. ‘Doubt’ has a much beefier sound to it - on record it sounds almost minimalistic in its production. All of the songs played tonight are quite capable of transcending the toilet circuit (and with the hype behind them, no doubt will). Delphic are a band who know they’re soon to be playing Academy venues, that tonight is fine tuning a set they will be able to perform in their sleep in nine months time. The visual show that accompanies the music is your stereotypical dance music/strobe alignment – but as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The pounding backbeat, reminiscent of early techno with a soulful tint is well accompanied by their light show. Highlights of the set include ‘Submission’ (surely the next single?), a significantly extended version of ‘This Momentary’ and the encore of title track ‘Acolyte’. They’re play with a professionalism and skill that shows time spent in previous incarnation Snowfight In The City Centre wasn’t wasted. The members of Delphic clearly grew as musicians during this time and their performance of ‘Acolyte’ would, in better circumstances, have been breathtaking.

Delphic: 7/10.

Now to the bad: Leeds Cockpit itself. Who puts the headliners of a gig on at 8.30pm? We enter the venue expecting to get a good position in the crowd only to find the band halfway through ‘Doubt’. Through the rest of the set, people enter the gig looking utterly bemused that the band are on already. Yes, there is a popular clubnight in the venue after to prepare for but Future Of The Left, who played the previous night, didn’t finish till nearly 10:30 and a clubnight was more than adequately held until after that. It isn’t just us caught out by this, discontented rumblings can be heard from many angles when exiting the venue.

The second issue is the room itself. The gig had been sold out weeks in advance yet rather than move into the main room, which the band could have easily filled out, they cram everyone into Room 2. There’s a difference between having a crowded, packed atmosphere which contributes to the gig in a positive light and being packed in like sardines, unable to move and being smacked in the face by the entrance doors every 10 seconds. Certain sections of the crowd are also a massive pain in the arse: yes we’re looking at you, big beefy bald twat on his friends shoulders. The only organ smaller than your ‘roid ravaged penis is clearly your brain and the only thing potentially smaller than that is your IQ. Go and die.

The Cockpit: 2/10.

So, on reflection: Delphic, good. Cockpit, bad. Very bad. Sort it out next time.