Renny Conti live at Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club
Conti blew the roof off of the Brudenell with a free show to kick off his run of UK headline shows.
Photo: Gabe Long
Renny Conti arrived in the UK all the way from New York to play a series of festival sets before embarking on some headline shows this September. Kicking off that run was a free show at Leeds’ famous Brudenell Social Club. There isn’t many better places to see live music and Conti put on a show packed with power and triumph that was more than deserving of such a wonderful venue.
Before Conti took the stage, Eszter Vida put on an energetic and enthralling support set. Their lead singer has an absolutely remarkable voice that makes the band sound like Adrianne Lenker-fronted power pop. If you had told me that one of their singles, Roadkill, was a Stranger in the Alps-era Phoebe Bridgers demo, then I would have believed you. Towards the end of their set, they played a blistering new song with an insatiable groove that I was so drawn into that I could have listened to it on repeat for hours. It was a great way to get people in the mood for Conti’s headlining set.
As soon as Conti and his band rifled into their set with noisy fury, he had the entire audience tightly within his grasp for the entire hour — a testament to the power of his songs. Speaking of power, while Conti’s songwriting is always exemplary, his band are absolutely killer. The righteous grunge guitar tones made the whole thing sound like Elliott Smith being backed up by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Alongside the raucous guitars, their drummer comes straight from the Max Weinberg school of smashing the snare drum as hard as humanly possible. The drums absolutely exploded through songs. It sounded like he was picking a fight with them — and it was one he was determined to win.
It was a night of firsts for Conti as he explained on stage that not only was it his first-ever show in Leeds, but being at the Brudenell gave him the opportunity to have his first-ever pie too. He also delightfully told us about how he went into town earlier that day and bought a brand-new guitar he was debuting that night. It seemed like Leeds had left as much of a mark on Conti as Conti was about to on Leeds.
The most important first of all was the debut performance of a handful of songs from Conti’s outstanding upcoming album Split Second. These songs burst into life live as he played San Francisco, 2005 with tons of energy and spirit. It was a stark difference from hearing the subdued yet gorgeous version of it on the record, and it just shows Conti knows exactly how to present songs for recordings and how to then up the ante when translating them into a live setting.
Later on, they launched into one of Split Second’s singles, Impossible Truth, with absolute venom. The band exploded out of the speakers. If the drummer was fighting his kit earlier in the set, it was clear he’d won that battle pretty convincingly, as he was absolutely pummelling them into oblivion by this point in the evening. Another great rendition of new song Mona Lisa followed before the penultimate song, Leaving the Zoo, gave us a final preview of Split Second. Like San Francisco, 2005 earlier, it packed a whole lot more punch than the dreamlike studio version and was yet another opportunity for Conti and his band to show off their live prowess and power.
The night ended with a blistering performance of South Star from last year’s self-titled record. Alongside the upcoming release of his excellent and stunningly produced fifth studio album, Conti managed to show that he’s not just an excellent studio artist but that he’s a captivating, powerful and raucous live performer too. It might have been his first time in Leeds, but I can assure you that it won’t be his last.
