Gig review: This Is The Kit at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

Lists which pretty much invariably and regardless of the motives of the publishing publication would have included Moonshine Freeze by contemporary folk outfit This is the Kit.

Having strongly rasped on the door with 2015’s Bashed Out, Kate Stable’s band proved the old adage to be untrue as she well and truly hit, before smashing down, the door with a banjo through last year’s release. Lyrically Stable’s work hits the very highest echelons, examining mortality and human nature through many different sets of eyes and characters.

Musically This is the Kit’s live set achieves what in theory should be unachievable by lifting the songs to another level from the recorded version. With six exemplary musicians crammed onto the Brudenell stage (exemplary musicians, not, as it turns out, sound engineers as bassist Jesse Vernon so ably demonstrated) every song was engaging and captivating, from the Stable solo efforts, the brass sections and guitarist Neil Smith’s blistering guitar solos.

Interjected with Stable’s confident witticisms, the current release, which has seen the audience swell at least tenfold since their last visit to the iconic Leeds venue, the set bounced from atmospheric folk, danceable yet psychedelic guitar to stripped back banjo. The common thread throughout is the strength of Stable’s vocals, which when alongside Vernon and drummer Jamie’s harmonies directed the entire evening beautifully.

The album title track was a particular highlight, it soared, elevated by brass and guitar, but selecting one track from a set of this quality is akin to asking a child in a sweetshop to pick a favourite. All Written Out in Numbers and Two Pence Piece will also remain long engrained in the memory before the main set closed with Stable’s most accessible song and latest single, Hotter Colder.

Returning with her banjo to take the spotlight before closing with the ‘full caravan’, Stable was clearly in awe of both the size of the crowd and the rapture which with they held her music and humility. A voice like hers deserves bigger stages, whatever the venue it would engulf the back of the room, and now with the brakes firmly off Moonshine Freeze’s trajectory, it will only be a matter of time before that potential is realised.