Live Review: Stone - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 20/2/2022
Liverpool indie rockers Stone take to the stage at Leeds institution Brudenell Social Club. We find out just exactly why they’re one of the UK’s most promising new bands.
Anybody who’s stupidly ventured outside over this past weekend will more than likely tell you that you shouldn’t bother attempting to go outside during a storm. We can’t handle it, the transport can’t handle it - Britain as a whole just can’t handle a slight shift in weather conditions.
This all became very evident on my way to see Liverpool rockers STONE, when my usual twenty minute journey to Brudenell Social Club became a three hour extravaganza. After four cancelled trains, £40 wasted on Ubers and a complete loss of the will to live, I was beginning to regret ever leaving my warm and cosy bed.
Thankfully, these feelings would very quickly dissipate.
I finally arrived at Brudenell halfway through the set of the first support act. Hailing from Birmingham, Headshrinkers set the mood for those that had queued all day with their toe-tapping guitar riffs. A trip to the bar for a well needed pint meant a large part of their set passed me by, but the few songs that I caught had me swaying at the back of the room.
Seb Lowe graced the stage next, with nothing but his acoustic guitar and his brilliantly clever lyrics. My pretentious prejudgement of him, based solely on his TikTok-based rise to fame, was quickly proven to be unfair and irrational from the first few lines of his opening song. Whilst some songs blurred together a little bit in the middle of the set, the tunes that stood out as highlights clearly indicate that he only ever seems to be getting better.
A short break followed, filled unexpectedly with a lot of techno blaring from the speakers, and then it was time for STONE. Opening with ‘Keep Running’, the band kicked things off with a contagious high energy that never once dropped throughout the entire set.
It is impossible to single out one member as the driving force for the insane stage presence of STONE. Their collective passion and charisma amalgamates into one huge blur of enthusiasm, and you can’t help but find yourself getting swept into it all. The dramas of my day were completely forgotten as I threw myself into the ever-growing mosh pit that accompanied every song. It was just the band, the music, and a crowd that was just as hypnotised as I was.
Alongside this clear adoration for their music, something that amplifies STONE’s presence to another level is the genuine nature of the members themselves. Lead singer Finlay Power is the kind of frontman that the world needs more of: he repeatedly checked on people across the venue, joked and levelled with the rowdier members of the crowd, even brought a young boy that had queued all day onto the stage for us to applaud his determination and let him sing the chorus to ‘Leave It Out’. There’s no arrogance or superiority to his persona - it’s almost like watching your mate perform.
Another member that cannot go unmentioned is bassist Sarah Surrage, who could easily be one of the coolest people I’ve ever seen with her punky theatrics and incredible skills. She’s the kind of role-model we need more of in the scene, and this felt even more important when witnessing the response of teen girls in the audience. A group nearby cheered the loudest when it was her dominating the stage, and the crowd member in front of me frequently expressed their admiration to their friends.
As the last show on the band’s tour, Power made it clear between songs that he wanted to go out with a bang. Both audience and performers arguably succeeded in ensuring this. Between the dancing crowd, the sprayed champagne, and the vodka shots that were encouraged on stage by the crowd’s “down in one” chant, everything felt like one big party. Even the unreleased tracks were met with a response as phenomenal as the fan favourites.
Leaving Brudenell at the end of the night, covered in beer and champagne and other people’s sweat, felt more difficult than it usually does. I took with me a t-shirt from the merch stand and an unexpected, intense appreciation for a band that had proven the value of kindness and humility in the punk scene.
Words by Caitlin Mincher
