The local opener for this Yak show was Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam (6.4/10). A band who are currently at the forefront of the Birmingham scene, having released their last album 'Blackout Cowboy' to acclaim, after releasing a wealth of Bandcamp material over the years before it. Despite having been a part of the Birmingham scene for some time, this show supporting Yak was surprisingly enough my first time seeing them. Unsurprisingly Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam are a pretty solid band live. Their psych- rock sounding tight and focused. Blacking out the lights in time with the song 'Blackout Cowboy' was also a nice touch.
Since bursting onto the scene a few years back with their debut LP 'Alas Salvation' YAK have established themselves as one of the UK's best live bands and a strong part of the psych rock revival. Following a few years where Yak travelled across the world and Singer-guitarist Oli Burslem briefly ended up living in the back of a van they're back with the new album 'Pursuit of Momentary Happiness'. On the Friday night I saw them, the tiny Castle and Falcon venue was packed full of punters, watching an empty stage as abstract electronic noise filled the room. Once a white clad Oli and the rest of Yak hit the stage the young lads at the front started moshing and didn't stop till the end of the show, not long after that Oli decided to join them, not bothered at all by the fact that he was still playing his guitar. For a brief moment he fell right down in front of me, but was up before I could help him. 
Musically Yak are a bit hard to put into a simple box. Their newer material takes cues from Spiritualised, yet their stage show is more reminiscent of the feral energy you'd find at a King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard show. Oli plays guitar much like his label boss and guitar hero Jack White, stripping back all pretension, and distorting blues rock riffs into something far more heavy. In terms of songwriting Yak can be incredibly simplistic. Like when Oli spent a whole track deadpan singing 'He's got the whole world in his hands' down a loudspeaker. All this comes backed by the krautrock style rhythms of drummer and bassist Elliot Rawson and Andy Jones. Yak also took some time to slow things down a little bit and air some newer songs and also rant monologues about modern life down the loudspeaker, but the next burst of noise was never too far away.
Almost as if to play a little prank on the audience after the supposed last song Yak simply walked off stage and let the lights and music back on, before walking back on stage a minute later to play more tunes without a word. A strange way to do an encore, but Yak are never ones to do things the normal way.
(8.8)
Links:
www.yakband.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/sunshinefrisbeelaserbeam
https://www.facebook.com/CastleandFalcon/
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