Live review: Haiku Hands at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds – 25 Jan

When there was a shout out at LOUD WOMEN HQ asking for reviewers for this gig, at one of my favourite venues, I knew I’d have to brave the weather and venture out on a school night because this band was not to be missed. All of that was based on one video: ‘Ma Ruler’.

Haiku Hands are an alt-EDM outfit from Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The group consists of Claire Nakazawa, Beatrice Lewis, Mie Nakazawa.

The venue was the Brudenell Social Club, it’s one of my favourite venues. If you haven’t been, go! It’s fab. It literally is a social club and just happens to have two amazing spaces to put on some of the best music out there. Which stands to reason that Haiku Hands were playing there.

We arrived just in time for the support act Ladies Nite, a local Leeds based electropop band made up of Martha and Mary and Stu, master of visual wizardry and projection. The projections were wizardy, the songs were catchy and about stuff that we can all relate to; such as badly fitting relationships, badly paid jobs and badly made assumptions. Check them out.

This set the scene perfectly for the main act. It was also very sweet to hear one of the Ladies Nite crew rushing out and saying to friends,

‘They’re ready, they’re all dressed up, its going to be exciting’.

Bit of excellent solidarity right there. 

Anyway, I barely have words for what happened next. A lyric in one of their songs is ‘ain’t noone like them’ and I really don’t think there is. Costumes, fun, colour, ribbons, beats, harmonies, dancing, attitude … oh it seems there are words.

I love them. These women are true performers with bags of charisma. Not only that, but they are clearly living their best life – they were beaming. They understand how to connect with an audience, to the point they could make eye contact with you and smile in a way that you were forced to smile back. I mean why wouldn’t I? I was having a great time but seriously I feel like had I not been they’d have tried to do something about that.

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that I love this band. I love EDM, I love dancing, I love costumes but its not just me. The whole audience were also loving it. Their encore song ‘Feels so good’, proper gave me the feels.

Amazingly, I managed to catch Beatrice after the gig and asked her what she thought about the gig. She said

“The venue was so warm and kind and lovely that it felt like a home crowd. We’ve come all the way from Oz and we had people singing our words back at us, it was lovely!’

What a night! Try to catch them, you won’t regret it!

Upcoming gigs in the UK:
Thursday 1 February 2024: Brighton – Patterns
Saturday 3 February 2024: Bristol – Thekla
Tickets here

Find Haiku Hands on
haikuhands.com.au
instagram
spotify
youtube