Live: Good Shoes, Lightspeed Champion and Ida Maria at Leeds Cockpit, 14/11/07

In my first live experience of Good Shoes I leave convinced only that they are a boring middle of the road indie band around for the soul purpose of making other bands like the Cribs sound new and exciting.

This was reflected in their average at best gig at the Met Bar Leeds on Wednesday 14th November. The crowd were predominately lifeless apart from the a hardcore at the front who started to jump up and down at the request of the sadly lifeless front man, a group who also managed to drop the occasional bit of crowd surfing to stop the boredom from kicking in. The problem wasn't so much the lacklustre stage-presence, although it didn't help, but a lack of any really inspirational tunes, the kind that jump out at you and make the band seem memorable.

Fortunately some real treats were on offer before the main act, with a couple of cracking performances from both Ida Maria and Lightspeed Champion. The Norwegian Ida and her band kicked the night off with style as she tore up the stage with a voice not to dissimilar to that of Bjork and punk riffs that Iggy pop in his prime would be proud of - with a level of passion in her music reflected by her energy on stage. Next was a Lightspeed Champion (Dev from ex-scene-rockers Test Icicles) that despite a lack of percussion still owned the Met with his melodic pop gems. Dev Haynes proved tonight that he is not just an screamo electro indie fad but also a true indie legend. Capping the set off were some added balls when the Good Shoes drummer came on to finish the set in true rock and roll style.

We caught up with Ida Maria after the gig and put some questions to her:

Who was your main influence that made you want to pick up a guitar and get into the music industry?

That is a hard question. That is a fucked up question. I love music, I have always listen to music, I love jazz, classical, rock and roll, country. I guess in this song writing has been mostly inspired by The Velvet Underground, The Smiths, Elvis, Bob Dylan and maybe a bit of Iggy Pop too.

Is your family musical?

Yeah my Father is a music teacher.

I was looking on your myspace page last night and I noticed that as well as the influences you just mentioned, you also listed the colour red as an influence.

Yeah, well I have this thing in my brain called Synaesthesia which make my head think as if it were on acid all the time, it runs in my family and my mum had it. It kind of make me feel things through colours.

The music industry in notoriously sexist, have you ever experienced any problems within the industry due to that?

Well, the music industry is run by men. I had a lot of trouble trying to find any good female bass players, or drummer, etc. and I didn't want to get them just for the sake of it. I guess I have struggled a lot with men telling me what to change and the direction to go in.

You always seem to put a lot of effort into all you live show which is what makes you such a good live performer. Do you find it hard to put in that much effort every day on long tours?

I have been touring since January so yeah it is hard but you body is like a muscle and you have to keep challenging yourself or else you wont improve. Anyway I just cant stand still when I'm playing music.

There must be days when you get up and just really cant be arsed with playing that night?

Yeah but that is normally because my voice has gone or something.

Is it the lives shows that you enjoy most about being in a band?

Yeah but I wish I was with more girls on the tour, I'm always surrounded by boys and I swear I'm turning into a boy myself.

Do you think that your background has helped to create your unique sound?

Yeah most British bands are just influenced by British music, whereas I'm influenced by lots of different music, both British and American but also Scandinavian too.

Mange tak Ida Maria - That's Scandinavian. Check it out, Yorker readers.

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