Yard Act - Live Review - DIY Class Of 2022 Tour

Yard Act Live Review - DIY Class Of 2022 Tour

Friday 16th September 2022, The Bullingdon, Oxford

Friday evenings don’t really get much better musically in Oxford, with the impressive Yard Act band gracing one of the only independent venues left in the City, The Bullingdon. The DIY Class of 2022 tour had been postponed since January, in which the band have only got bigger and bigger. The Mercury Music 2022 Nominated, yet to be awarded, foursome take to the stage just after 9pm and immediately mix it up.

They tell the crowd they’re playing for 45 minutes and are immediately taking requests. Not something I had seen before, but it immediately gets the crowd shouting what they want to hear. The most vocal of the audience have decided that 'Payday', 'Fixer Upper' and 'The Overlord' will be the openers, to which front man James Smith joyfully jokes that it’s a very front-loaded set, but it’s our choice and that’s what they will do.

The Leeds band fire straight into the crowd pleasers with the witty lyrics being sung back by the audience in this small 300 capacity venue. I’m lucky to be seeing them in such small surroundings, they won’t be playing this sized venue for much longer. During the next round of voting the crowd complain that this is one of the only independent venues remaining in Oxford, to which James Smith quips that he can’t do anything about it unfortunately but let’s have a good evening. We then were treated to 'Dead Horse', 'Tall Poppies' and 'Witness'.

Some clever interludes had the band and the audience conversing over the origins of Detroit Pizza and Elton John aka Pocketman.

Later on, the band discussed the Mercury evening being stopped short due to the Queens passing, so they never found out who won.

'Peanuts' was up next with a crowd member taking on a fair chunk of the vocal work for this well pieced together song. The band finished up with 'Rich', 100% endurance' before going off for a quick encore and then returning with 'Dark Days'. The band end up playing around an hour.

An amazing show in a tiny venue, with a band who know how to work a crowd, together with a set of songs to back it up. The Mercury Prize could be on its way!

The evening was supported by English Teacher and Lime Garden.