Wooden Shjips - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 18/4/2010

by Helen Tipping

published: 29 / 4 / 2010

Helen Tipping watches American garage act Wooden Shjips play a 60's and 70's prog/psychedelic-influenced set inf front of an ecstatic and packed audience at the Leeds Brudenell

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Psychedelic garage musos from San Francisco Wooden Shjips bring their prog-style meanderings to the Brudenell to a sell out audience of what seem to be ecstatic maths professors from Leeds University, and the obligatory drunk waving his pint around in some form of epileptic dancing. The tracks are long, with repetitive bass and an underlying drone sound from the keyboards. This and the use of echo on the guitar and vocals are reminiscent of Loop or even Hawkwind. They definitely draw on older psychedelic bands for inspiration, along with garage rock groups of the 60s and 70s. There is little banter between tracks, with keyboard player Nash Whalen setting up filler sounds such as birdsong instead. When vocalist Erik ‘Ripley’ Johnson does speak, he forgets to take the echo off so it’s very hard to hear what he’s saying. It seems like they had a good time at Leeds though. The photographs that accompany this article were taken for Pennyblackmusic by Neil Bailey.