Live review: Gruelling Gurriers top the bill with a heated Yorkshire showing

Post-punk warriors, Gurriers, are on an unprecedented rise at the present, with a support slot entangled with the band of the moment Fontaines D.C. and a rumbling of noisy support from their devout following, make it easy to understand why many have become radicalised by their fighting lyrics and punching sound.

The Irish group carry a catharsis that only post-punk can deliver when everything is unravelling in real time around us.

As inside Leeds’ industrial modernistic cavern Project House, the Dubliners proved that even when your vocal cords are on the brink of total collapse, pure adrenaline and unadulterated noise can bridge any gap.

Kicking off the night were Rotterdam's Tramhaus, who brought their own brand of jagged, motorik chaos across the North Sea.

The Dutch quintet set standard-issue post-punk on fire, priming the crowd into a squirming, sweaty heap well before the headliners even stepped onstage.

When Gurriers finally took to the boards, an ominous sense of urgency lingered in the Yorkshire air.

Frontman Dan Hoff’s throat was visibly shot, a night of ferocious touring taking its brutal toll, but rather than retreat or cut corners, the frontman leaned straight into the gravel.

Opening with a blistering duo of Nobody’s Coming To Save You and Party Lines, the vocal strain only added a desperate, visceral bite to the driven setlist.

Hoff rasped and yelled like a man possessed, backed by a wall of razor-wire guitar riffs.

By the time the visceral churn of Nausea and the relentless groove of Des Goblin kicked in, the crowd had completely abandoned personal space.

A succession of chaotic mosh pits erupted in the centre of the Project House floor, swallowing up beer cups, elbows, and any residual pretension.

The middle stretch of their primal performance was a non-stop barrage: Pins sparked rapid, kinetic energy, followed by the towering anthem Today Is Not Enough and the claustrophobic crunch of Nothing Happens Twice.

Hoff’s voice rasped and scraped through Shades and Sign Of The Times (not to be confused with the Harry Styles track of the same name), but the sheer volume of a roaring Leeds crowd provided all the vocal support he needed to carry on.

Not content with staying safe onstage, the fiery band took the party straight into the belly of the pit.

Mid-set, during the punishing double-assault of Erasure and Come & See, frontman Hoff vaulted recklessly over the barrier and plunged headfirst into the swirling mass of bodies.

Not to be outdone, but bass guitarist Charlie McCarthy hurled himself into the crowd during the serrated rumble of Drones, holding down the low-end while suspended on a sea of upturned palms.

Following a brief, heartbeat-restoring instrumental Interlude, the home stretch was an absolute masterclass in raw punk power.

Dreamily, eery Top Of The Bill carried the evening on with raised voices and arms as it instilled a sweet-swaying effect for probably the only time of the alt-rock showing.

Waiting For Fisher, and the razor-sharp Approachable returned the pit into a constant motion.

When the driving rhythms of I Wish I Was gave way to set-closer Crybaby, Hoff threw down the ultimate gauntlet: commanding the crowd to part ways, establishing an all-out, floor-clearing wall of death.

The collision was instantaneous, ferocious, and utterly euphoric, as beer cups flung themselves onto the Project House ceiling.

Gurriers may have come to Leeds with a wrecked voice, but they left with an obliterated venue and an undisputed point of impact with anyone in attendance.

If this is how they sound when they're broken, God help the rest of us when they’ve taken a pack of throat soothers.