Pure Love – Duchess, York – February 9th 2013

It’s a Saturday afternoon and roll on 5pm when I get to leave work at Durham and drive down to York to see Pure Love for the third time in eight months. Two of these times being in the lovely land of York.
I manage to get down to York, get a curry inside of me and to the venue twenty minutes before Pure Love take to the stage which is more than enough time to sink a few beers. A few bottles of the amber nectar in and Pure Love hit the stage.

I would class myself as a Pure Love live show veteran and that I know what to expect but I am shocked once again at what I witness in the first minute of their set. I look across the crowd during opening “She (Makes The Devil Run Through Me) to see Frank Carter riding an inflatable Banana over the crowd singing his heart out.

It is hard to describe a Pure Love show without going back to the bands hardcore punk routes as it is everything a hardcore show is minus the music itself. Band members in and out of the crowd, audience members crowd surfing over the barricade and the smell of spilt beer and sweat coming from the pit.

With their debut album finally released and this being the first tour since its release on February 4th finally the crowd are singing along to every word that Frank Carter belts out of his mouth with as much passion and desire as him. The band play for forty five minutes and blast out as many of the songs from their debut as possible whilst having great crowd interaction through out.

At one point Frank Carter and Jim Carrol point out a member of the audience who constantly abuse them on twitter and begin to verbally assault and abuse him in hope that this will finally put him in his place. It finally comes to the last two songs of the set that include Riot Song and Scared to Death and I know exactly what is going to happen as this isn’t my first rodeo.

The band begin to bring their instruments into the crowd and a circle pit around the drum kit is demanded and then quickly stopped as this rotating mob of Yorkshire beasts accidentally break the bassists lead as well as taking the guitarist with them as they get caught up in the moment. Luckily enough none of the band are hurt and the bass player is able to continue playing but from the stage whilst watching his band mates live it up in the crowd.

Everyone in the crowd is sad to see the band leave the stage but at the same time there is not one sad face in the venue as the band have once again put on one hell of a performance and shown that they are a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully with more exposure and decent sales of their album we will see Pure Love playing headlining shows in much bigger venues very soon. 8.8/10
Chris Storey