Three bands of growing popularity are to treat us tonight at Boom Leeds. The venue has been a great place for grassroots musicians to reach new audiences and with the community coming together last year to stop its closure, it’s clear it’s a venue with much importance to the bands it serves. Tonight, I’m looking forward to seeing the first ever band I shot back in April last year and see how much they’ve grown since then. Tonight, Waterlines will have the venue on its knees.
Skies Turn Black are a Huddersfield based band. They join us tonight as the opener and with one member down, who happens to be the lead singer and lead guitarist, the instrumentalists have taken the responsibility of vocals and have had another guitarist step in. The vocals were covered by the keytarist and support vocals were by one of their guitarists. The two held the stage together well and delivered on the vocal performance to make newcomers to the band not even realize they were having to provide cover.
The band has an electronic metal sound that surprisingly goes really well. It has aspects of 90s rock with some 80s pop vibes. It’s like they’ve taken the parts of those genres and blended them to make them work together. You could play this during Stranger Things and no one would bat an eye. I’d say it’s the first band I’ve heard in a while that has captured that classic rock style and modernized it to be palatable to today’s audience.
The crowd was vibing too. Though not a mosh pit or wall of death type of band, almost everyone in the room was nodding their heads and bending their knees. I could see friends looking at each with expressions of approval. The crowd got more lively upon the suggestion to get “silly”, becoming rabid during a cover of “Take on Me” by a-ha. The crowd gathered closer to the stage at the keyboardists command, and didn’t move from where they were for their entire 30 minute set.
Eschalon are a 6 piece band from Cambridge. Immediately upon taking to the stage, the presence was undeniable. The band had all venue lights killed and instead used a programmed strobe light that only had them backlit. The two vocalists on stage were showing their skills with harsh and soft vocals and even at one point rapping. It was hard to know where to look at points as with 6 members on a small stage all trying to mosh, there was a lot going on.
The audience here for them were lining the stage and absolutely losing themselves to the music. The melody would start and I could hear someone go “oh fuck yeah” in the crowd. Safe to say there were fans here today. The experience for them would have only been further spurred on by the members, guitarists and both vocalists all at different times, joining the crowd.
The band gave a special shout-out to their drummer who was celebrating his 30th birthday tonight, getting the crowd to sing happy birthday and getting the drummer to perform a drum solo that he had no idea he would be asked to do. He definitely delivered though, a sick beat down with kick drums and all the cymbals you could ask for. The band went out on a high, performing “Helios” that had the room shaking.
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Waterlines are a 4 piece Northern band who have been gaining momentum this past year. I may be biased with this band, seeing as though they were the first band I ever shot back in April 2023 and have since done a couple music videos with them. But, when a band is sick, a band is sick. I don’t make the rules. The band came on with an absolute storm behind them. The lights they bring go off to add to their chaotic atmosphere. The sound engineering had a great crispness to it that made the sounds all blend so well together in the concrete venue room.
The crowd lining the barrier are going mental at this point. Moshing their heads and creating a little pit to push around. The crowd were going hard especially during “Prey“, belting out the lyrics and reaching out their hands to the guitarists on stage. I could see, from the back, someone with long hair just letting it fly in the air, as they moshed hard. The singer didn’t have to demand much for the crowd to be feral.
The vocalist delivers some great harsh vocals, that during sound check made someone exclaim “fuckin hell”. The guitarists are great at maintaining their sides and vibing with the crowd in front of them and the drummer has always had great expressions. One of my favourite moments of a Waterlines gig is the daisy chain, where the crowd put their arms around each other’s shoulders and jump left to right, the band following creating a perfect synergy. The night ended with members from Eschalon joining “Brace” and a wall of death that saw one person’s life flash before their eyes as they fell to the floor (thankfully, they got swiftly picked up by another crowd member).
Waterlines have one more date on this tour, before they work on new material and later embark on an 8-day straight tour in the latter half of the year.
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Pics by JSM Slater Films
