Featured image and gallery: Georgina Hurdsfield
Hoards of fans and punters alike cram themselves wall to wall in the hope of getting an unobscured view of Yard Act’s James Smith. The Manchester born frontman is frantically scrambling at the mixing desk under the watchful eye of bandmate Jay Russell. The crowd continues to grow until faces begin to peer in from the windows at the back of the room, eager to be involved in the chaos inside. It’s a beautiful, sweaty, hot mess in celebration of Yard Act’s all day residency across the city. The plot twist; this is only the afterparty.
Mere hours before being thrust into the DJ hot seat, Smith struts on stage at the Apollo. Yard Act are a band firing on all cylinders, with headline gigs penciled in for a plethora of locations across America and Europe to promote their second record, Where’s My Utopia?. ‘An Illusion’ opens the show, serving as an introduction to Yard Act’s redefined sound. Freed of the ‘post-punk poster boys’ label, album number two explores the band’s penchant for pop sensibilities. ‘Dream Job’ and ‘We Make Hits’ swell with a joyous sheen, received with delight by the crowd. Smith’s showmanship is perpetually reminiscent of Jarvis Cocker’s antics, a complimentary observation of both frontmen; had Yard Act been around in the mid-’90s, Smith may well have been a frontrunner of the Britpop hierarchy.
The seemingly never ending stream of greatest hits is punctuated by an array of theatrical interludes, spurred on by backing vocalists Daisy Smith and Lauren Hazel. Dressed in comically large trench coats, the duo frequently abandon their microphone stands to steal the spotlight centre stage. “I’d play the victim shot dead in the cold open,” grumbles Smith during a lively rendition of ‘When The Laughter Stops’. In response, Hazel clutches at her chest and collapses, feigning a fatal gunshot wound. They then pelt the audience with sweets, the namesake of the ensuing song ‘Fizzy Fish’.
The zaniness culminates in some classic crowd participation, with a front row fan invited onstage to spin a wheel adorned with four tracks from 2021’s Dark Days debut EP. As a result, the band breaks out into a performance of ‘Fixer Upper’, the choice decided by the bootleg wheel of fortune. Guitarist Sam Shipstone revels in the opportunity to revisit Yard Act’s early discography, gleefully ripping into an arsenal of riffs during ‘Pour Another’ and ‘The Overload’.
“Surprise!” chuckles Smith, returning for a tongue-in-cheek encore. Behind a facade of relentless irony, Smith lowers the veil just long enough for a touching arrangement of ‘100% Endurance’. The final song of the evening ‘The Trench Coat Museum’ is an 8-minute-long alternative odyssey, performed alongside support acts Gustaf and Hang Linton. Bassist Ryan Needham leads the charge against a chaotic composition of cow bells, saxophone and shimmering synths, as the crowd shove, hug, crowd-surf and dance non-stop throughout. To paraphrase the lyrics of the band’s 2023 single ‘Dream Job’, the set-closer is “Ace! Top! Mint!”.
In the wake of the stuttering conclusion of ‘The Trenchcoat Museum’, Yard Act’s extended family make a hasty dash for the exit, a race with fans to the arrival of their own afterparty.
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