Shout Out Louds @ The Cockpit, Leeds February 2006

He who shouts loudest, shouts the longest. As the video for the Shout Out Louds’ The Comeback is nominated for a Swedish grammy, Adam and his guitar hungry chums bait the Cockpit with a moog and some hillbilly-chic.

You know it’s going to be a good night when the first band on (Leeds’ very own Being 747) forsake the usual ‘How ya doing, Leeds? I can’t hear you!’ for a sober announcement that they are here for health and safety purposes before launching into a series of brilliantly jagged pop songs whilst dressed in white overalls and plastic goggles. Songs such as ‘Use Your Friends’, ‘DIY Prescriptions’ and ‘The Girl Who Fell Asleep Whilst Watching Her Life Flash Past Her Eyes’ have all the spike and swagger of Clor at their best, and despite the endearingly throwaway demeanor of the band, there are some really strong, jolting yet melodic choruses going on here.

Next on are Western Suburbs, a more generic form of indie, a chug and churn of guitars and plain, earnest indie vocals.

Deeper into the evening and our heroes, The Shout Out Louds, stroll onstage to the sound of some upbeat Scandinavian folk….

This Stockholm five piece enjoy a growing reputation as purveyors of quirky pop not dissimilar to that of fellow Swedes, The Cardigans. Album reviews may reference 80’s pop and whimsical lyrics, yet read what fans say about the live shows and you will see more and more mentions of Arcade Fire and The Magic Numbers – and there is indeed a grit mixed in with the polish of the performance: To give you a measure of their energy live – one of the highlights of their set is a cover of the Irish Rover done to indie-skiffle perfection.

As for the band members themselves – well, they seem as fashionably bemused as only professional eccentrics in the music industry can, as singer Adam, dressed in shirt and braces like an effete lumberjack takes center stage, while the others hop and shuffle around him and keyboardist Bebban stares into the middle distance occasionally fondling a Moog.

To anyone who remembers Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cure the first time round, there is something of these bands’ finer moments in the guitar chimes and bass runs of the Shout Out Louds. This is reflected somehow in the make up of the audience from the newer fans singing along to tracks such as ‘Very Loud’ and ‘Oh, Sweetheart’, through to older couples catching the echoes of McCulloch and Smith, the traces of rhythm and melody from the dream of their generation.

This is sweetly barbed indie, with an underlying drive (that becomes more apparent when you see their frantic touring schedule).

One last reference that might not appeal immediately to their PR team – there is something of the spirit of skiffle here. I don’t mean ‘Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Overnight?’ I mean, The Vipers, Nancy Whiskey, the wilder moments of Donnegan, and the Levee Breakers, the acoustic rock’n’roll that intoxicated people in the days before amps, with its quiet passions and swashbuckling rhythms – and while this may seem like a stretch of the imagination, it might nevertheless be something that Adam with his shirt and braces and hillbilly-chic might just understand.

Set List