Posted on November 18, 2009 - by Chris Seed

Live Date For Puppets

A cold, Autumnal, Sunday night under the railway arches at The Cockpit in Leeds was lit up by Swedish 5 Piece Sad Day for Puppets. This band from the Blackeberg suburb of Stockholm won over a busy venue gathered to see American noise-rock band APtBS, not the easiest act to precede.

Their description on their MySpace page contains the line ‘The natural focal point of the band is singer Anna Eklund’, there is a good reason for this.

The set began with a short intro before Anna appeared from behind a stack of speakers to mesmerise us. Her silken and love-laden vocals floating into the crowd like a mist accompanied by the sonorous melodies created by guitarist, song-writer and producer Martin Kallholm. These lovely, soft, warm and comfortable sounds at first seem at odds with the musical style adopted by the very talented Marcus Sandgren on lead guitar. But then you get it. This blend of indie/pop/shoegaze and rock make Sad Day for Puppets a little bit different and quite interesting.

The songs they played are amongst the more up-tempo in their repertoire and, given the audience and venue, most appropriate. Their recent E.P. ‘Just like a Ghost’ includes some slower tracks if that is your bag.

Audience reaction moved along nicely from gentle head-nodding to ‘Mothers Tears’, through shoulder-swaying to ‘Set Alight’ and (the heart melting), ‘Hush’ to out-right dancing in more than a few cases to the infectious ‘Marble Gods’.

Word of mouth and internet hype will build some momentum for this band. There will certainly be a good part of Sunday’s Cockpit audience wearing their dancing shoes at their next gig in Leeds, let’s hope it is soon.

Sad Day For Puppets – “Mothers Tears”

Let it ring on...

• Ant Matters (0)
• Do Puppets Dream of… (0)
• The unknown colours of a 90s revival… (1)