Gig review: Everyone Says Hi at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Nick Hodgson’s indie supergroup have a rockier edge on their return to a familiar venue.
Maybe it’s the intoxicating atmosphere of a home town gig, or the fact that Everyone Says Hi have another year of gigging under their belt since the last time they headlined a show at the Brudenell Social Club, but Nick Hodgson & Co seem emboldened on their return tonight.
Five new songs are thrown into the mix while older, more familiar numbers from their self-titled debut album, which was released in January, are extended or sound heavier than they did in the same venue back in October 2024.
What hasn’t changed much is the former Kaiser Chiefs drummer and principal songwriter’s love of melody and fondness for Seventies-style harmonies that have the ability to worm their way into the subconscious on only one or two listens. Nor has his line in subtle repartee. Of the large serving of new material, he tells the audience: “When you hear them, just say to yourself, ‘This is ace’.”
They begin with gleaming renditions of Somebody Somewhere and Lucky Stars, with Hodgson playing semi-acoustic guitar and harmonising effortlessly with bassist Pete Denton (on loan from The Kooks), guitarist Tom Dawson and drummer Glenn Moule (of Howling Bells). I Wish I Was In New York City is slightly rougher than the studio version then the first of the evening’s new songs, Communication, offers a glimpse of where they’re headed, with its rubbery bassline and looser feel.
Sensibly keeping the crowd onside with the chiming Holding On To Let Go, they then test the waters once more with first-time airings of Just Like That and Don’t Understimate Yourself, whose rockier tone is in line with the new arrangement of On The Same Side which follows them.
Another new track, Life’s Not Perfect, brings Ben Gordon’s keyboard playing more into the frame, while guaranteed crowd-pleaser Only One is stretched out with la-la-la’s, and they round off the set with the phlegmatic Tried and Failed.
In what is, Hodgson says, only the band’s “second-ever encore”, they debut perhaps the most striking of their new songs, Real Friends, during which Hodgson and Denton’s voices blend impressively, and then bid farewell with Brain Freeze, which opens out into a surprise jam that speeds up as reaches its conclusion.
Then with that they’re gone, trooping offstage to the theme music from the Larry David sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, a joyful hour over and palates duly whetted for Album Number Two.