For the past few months I'd been going out quite regularly with Mike and Suggy from Novacain. Although we'd only been to one or two gigs together, most recently to see Plasticine and Playground in December, we frequently went to clubnights like the Madchester-themed Hallelujah or mod-themed Brighton Beach at the Cockpit in Leeds, particularly after Novacain shows. Leigh and Win never came with us though. While we were students they both had jobs, so drinking/staying up late during the week was awkward. We often talked about having a 'band night out' at our weekly practice sessions but this Dark Star gig, over a year since Novacain's first performance at the Duchess, was only the second time (almost) all of us actually went out together.
I'd seen Dark Star supporting the Longpigs at Leeds Met before Christmas and thought they were great. After the concert I bought their album, 'Twenty Twenty Sound', copied it to MiniDisc and listened to it on repeat on the rare occasions I actually bothered walking to uni to attend my lectures. When I found out they were playing Leeds again I asked the rest of Novacain if they'd like to come. I was only expecting Mike and Suggy to say yes but Leigh said he'd come along with his girlfriend as did Win. I was stoked as, not only were we all finally going out, I thought seeing Dark Star might inspire us to write some new songs. By this time I'd become convinced that we needed to change musical direction as a band - either towards cooler danceable indie rock like "One To Another" by The Charlatans and "Begging You" by The Stone Roses, or darker, more aggressive alt-rock, somewhere between Radiohead, the Pixies and Dark Star (I'm not sure that we were really suited to either of these but I persisted with this view until we eventually stumbled across something approaching our own style during 2001).
On the night of the gig Win cried off. His girlfriend at the time wasn't that keen on seeing bands (ironically she's really into music now and I sometimes bump into her at gigs) and evidentially didn't fancy joining us. She was also rather possessive so wouldn't let Win come on his own. The rest of us got to the Cockpit quite late and missed the first half of the opening act's set as a consequence. I hadn't heard of My Vitriol at the time but I quickly became hooked. I couldn't understand why Mike and Sug thought they were merely ok and Leigh didn't rate them at all. To me they were almost a perfect example of what I thought an alternative band should be - catchy, well-arranged noisy pop songs, with harmony vocals played by people who seemed interesting and had good haircuts. A few nights after this gig I was listening to Steve Lamacq's Evening Session programme on Radio 1 while writing an essay, when My Vitriol's début single, "Losing Touch", got its first play. I bought the CD on the day it came out and the song became a fixture of mixtapes I made around that time. Follow up single, "Cemented Shoes", was even better but the band didn't achieve the success I thought they deserved and they went on hiatus in 2002. Rather admirably they never actually split up and have gigged sporadically since, but they still haven't released a follow-up to their only album, 2001's 'Finelines'.
Dark Star were predictably ace. Although I wasn't quite as impressed as I was when I saw them at Leeds Met, it was nice to know the songs this time round. As at that show the band had covered their drum kit and amps with white fairy lights, which looked really cool, and their drummer was the centre of attention, with his flamboyant arm-flailing playing style. The highlight was a live take on the Danny Saber remix of album track "Graceadelica", which had reached #25 in the UK Singles Chart on release in January. Dark Star were another band I loved who disappeared due to lack of interest from the general public after releasing their first, and only, album. I was beginning to think that every new group I got into around this time was doomed to failure... The likes of Thirteen:13, Chicks and The Motorhomes may well agree.
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