Friday, December 15th and Tall Ships are in Leeds for the middle date in their farewell tour sandwich, with strong support coming from Tangled Hair and T.Hayes. Brudenell is undoubtedly one of Britain’s greatest venues, a spiritual performing ground-cum-rite of passage for the artists who play here. Tonight is a cocktail of formidable musicianship and high sentiment stirred into a venue of borderline-legend status, resulting in a display of unity and energy allowing the passionate crowd to serenade Tall Ships one last time. We’ll wait until tomorrow to nurse our melancholy at losing another deserving band who struggled to obtain rightful recognition.
Two high energy alt-slash-math-rock Eps and a matured math-slash-punk-slash-pop album down, and Tall Ships had affirmed themselves as a loop-peddling live force, a favourite of 2000Treesesque mid-sized rock festivals, with awkward-mosh initiations and screamalongs aplenty. Their second album Impressions was hit with severe delays in creativity, and upon its completion, repeated adjournments in release meant that any momentum gained from a brilliant debut and ferocious shows, stopped dead. It’s not totally clear why they’ve chosen to bow out, but these difficulties could be a contributing factor. So it is with great despondency but positive reminiscence, Tall Ships embark on their final voyage across the country before leaving their fans in wake, gratifying their dreams of becoming accountants or whatever. And it’s one hell of a send-off.
T.Hayes eases us in with a handful of solo acoustic tunes, his lyrics reference lactose intolerant friends and his truly stunning voice taps into the celebratory nature of the pre-grieving crowd. There is a strange mix of influence, Radiohead and Nirvana stripped down and blended, and some very Cobainesque ‘oohs’ filling T’s choruses. There is only a short wait for Tangled Hair, whose music lies a little closer to Tall Ships’. They battle through an out of tune bass and some remarkably lead ballooned penis jokes to win over the crowd with their slow-building meticulous-indie, the drummer’s superior talent stands out, with sporadic rhythms, high pace and dramatic fills enhancing a very particular style of nervous, inconspicuous yet authoritative rock.
Tall Ships’ live intelligence has been slightly muddied in recent tours by the predictability of their setlists, but tonight is far from the case. They walk out to the Jurassic Park theme, emulating the intense drama that’s to trail their trilogy. They open with the principal astonishment of the night, Words Are Pegs, in all its meticulous vigour. An elated crowd shuffle, cautiously at first, but with a growing confidence as they tear through singles Gallop and Will to Life with their signature dynamism. The audience now fully propelled and engrossed, Tall Ships settle in, flickering moments of sentiment over the set. Stirring lyrics about navigating the mundane, the struggles of maintaining a balanced existence and the inevitable rot of time have become Tall Ships tropes. Impressions anthemic highlight Petrichor, and later, Books are more poignant tonight than ever before, ‘killing time while time slowly kills me’ seemingly reflects the band’s unjust fragmentation, caused by the cruelty of time, while Petrichor acknowledges past mistakes and endeavours for a fresh beginning. Phosphorescence recaptures the night’s positivity and inspires zealous engagement, which continues through the set, with the next big surprise, the first song Tall Ships ever wrote, Beanieandodger, making the room erupt with its giddy energy.
“It wouldn’t be a Tall Ships gig without a fuck-up,” says Ric as his loops fail to register during Snow, another surprising choice of song. The band rotate the stage, as Ric builds and then rebuilds loops into an impassioned rendition of another longstanding record. They launch into Home, turning the crowd unsettled, a frankly beautiful song, but the lack of reaction seems to sum up Tall Ships’ last couple of years perfectly. No matter how mature and well-written the songs became people, for whatever reason, failed to respect it fully. But their archetypal songs persist like gorgeous earworms, Plate Tectonics builds, merging varying styles into a prevailing culmination in the final segment. This seamlessly gives way to final surprise of the night, now almost untraceable old-favourite, Hit The Floor, conclusive and cathartic in it’s aggression. The night could end here and they’d have done themselves proud.
But the encore manages to transcend everything. Ode to Ancestors is a periphrastic, dissident yet beautiful love song, a true alternative ballad with immoderate expressions and powerful imagery, tickling heartstrings in its utter devotion before thumping loops and the singalong finale, where band and crowd are communal in their longing. This is followed by T=0, I would argue one of the best album openers of all time, which sadly loses some of its power when used anywhere else in a set, but still registers as a stand-out moment. Goosebumps and head-flopping give way to Vessels, the best example of a Tall Ships three-in-one song. Wrought with high emotion during the practically isolated vocal section, escalating anticipation during the build-up, and a passionate conclusion, the room again a community, partaking in an extended choral outro. Again the lyrics, highly-emotive seem to look at the future, and leave behind the mistakes of the past.
They are reluctant to leave the stage, and we are reluctant to see them leave, but tonight has been a proper celebration, everybody seems truly grateful for the time and the music. I’d be hard pressed to find any faults with the set, even the touch of broken loop station only supplemented. The only absentee was Day by Day, which judging by the reaction to some of the later material, may have been a valid omission. Beyond this, every particle was perfect, the sum of many working parts. We are all links in the Tall Ships chain and will remain tethered to their history. Although their journey feels cut short, this show will be pencilled in as a highlight for both fan and band. As I sob and lament the loss of a truly intelligent, heartfelt bunch of songwriters, I can reminisce of the sincere delight within Brudenell tonight.
A perfect venue for a perfect set, this was a pretty unforgettable event. Thank you Tall Ships, and Farewell.
