REVIEW: Femur @ Yellow Arch

It’s Halloween weekend and there’s a spooky chill in the air, or maybe it’s just that we’re under the hallowed yellow arches and the primo loitering spot is, as ever, outside in the venue’s smoke-filled courtyard. Temperatures have dropped, ant’ they?!

Either way, as it’s Halloween, there’s plenty of ghostly looking apparitions down Yellow Arch this evening (and that’s just the venue’s co-owner, Russ!). We’re all here to catch Sheffield’s latest hot property, Femur, and they’re highly anticipated album launch show – it’s set to be a raucous one.

The evening of occult-themed rock is hosted by Sheffield promoters Buzz Bomb, whose not-for-profit ethos is to be commended, as is their mission to bring the biggest names to Sheffield through constant reinvestment.

Tonight’s line-up sees The Sleazoids step in at the eleventh hour for London-based rockers Dead Horse after travel arrangements fell through at the last minute.

Aptly for this evening, The Sleazoid’s lead singer Missy Tassles takes to the stage looking like Morticia Adams, if she’d ditched Gomez and taken up the guitar, while, even more impressively, sounding like Kate Pierson of The B52s.

The garage punk three-piece rattle through more songs than bass player Paul Dorrington could fit under his massive Stetson, as they kick the evening off at a break-neck speed with songs about New York bars, tiki men and err… 1970s West German communist guerrilla organisations! They’re a lot of fun.

Following a courtyard breather, where we had chance to check out the costumes on display (shoutout to a fabulous Coraline’s Other Mother effort), we head back into the bar as Galloping Dick (it’s not what you think… probably!) strut onto stage.

Named in honour of their debauched highwayman hero, who we’re told was ‘a bit like Robin Hood, but he didn’t bother giving to the poor… he gave it to the whores’, these time travelling, edgy blues rock purveyors are all swagger and big riffs.

The band’s double bass player seems intent on using his instrument as a step ladder throughout, showcasing an impressive feat of balance, bravery and stagecraft. I winced more than once as he teetered on the brink of stacking it into the front row, who, to be honest, probably would have loved it!

Set highlights include the riff heavy ‘Don’t Like your City’ and ‘Everything’s OK in the UK’, which belies their aristocratic stage personas with its vehemently anti-Tory message.

So, then, with all that rip-roaring rock n roll in the rear-view mirror, what of the main event?

It feels a bit like Femur’s moment. The band have come into their own in recent months and this recent run of shows in support of debut album People Parts only goes further to emphasise their rise in status amongst the Sheff scene, while waking up the masses from beyond the Hendos Wall as well.

After catching the four-piece on blistering form in Shakespeare’s over Tramlines weekend, at what was one of the sweatiest shows in living memory, we were psyched for a bit of psych rock this evening.

Made up of Felix Renshaw on vocals, Eddie Burks on guitar, Ryan Gillvray on bass and Danny Cox on drums, the quartet to take the stage in dramatic fashion clutching black candles and sporting floral garlands reminiscent of pagan horror flick Midsommar (I mean, it is Halloween).

Gloomy intros out of the way, they blast into a psych grunge set full of melancholy, nihilism and swirling walls of dirge-filled groove. The sound is so thick, you could clamber inside it.

As you’d expect if you’ve caught Femur before, it isn’t long before the boundary between band and audience is destroyed by both Felix and guitarist Eddie. Eddie even has a little lie down while he’s in there with us! Showmanship is alive and well with Femur, and Felix in particular is a hypnotizing presence throughout.

Sound-wise, there are a few comparisons you could make to other purveyors of DIY post-punk/psych rock, but what sets them apart for my money is their drummer Danny Cox, whose hi-hats and snare provide a much-needed danceable backdrop to the dirge. This is most evident on set highlight ‘I Don’t like’, which ironically combines the line “I don’t like groovy music” with one of the most groove filled that we’ve heard bounce around Yellow Arch.

As the set heads to its conclusion all too quickly, the crowd coaxed into squatting before their closing track bursts into a whopping great crescendo, and everyone loses their shit!

So then, did the raucous evening we were promised live up to the hype? Of course it did. And as for Femur… do believe the hype.