Carpe Noctem: Lancaster says goodnight to epic band

Rapper and vocalist Ash Murphy forcefully stopped play to tell the audience that they’d not seen a fight break out at a gig in their 10 year existence, and that, quite frankly, it wasn’t on.

Aptly, the scuffle, which was quickly dealt with by members of the band backed by chants of “get him out” from the audience, kicked off during the epic blues-fuelled Don’t Know Why.

As relative order, or at least the previously upbeat excitement and palpable energy, returned to the room, vocalist and guitarist Frenchie brought a dubbier, slower, more bluesy version of the song back in, backed up by bass from Graham Wynne and guitar from Jon Moore, before the band regrouped and took back the party.

Their brand new EP No Mercy was being given away at the door, a three track glimpse of fresh new music that will, possibly, probably, never be played live again, which is a shame because in particular the second track History, which was played live, faster and funkier on the night, is an absolute corker. It’s been rattling round my head all week.

This was the best I’d ever seen Carpe perform, and I’ve seen them a fair few times.

The energy forged between the band over the last decade and the emotion rippling over and under the surface brought startling results.

The sound was heavy, deep, tight, aggressive yet laid back, thoughtful and mellow...and as funky as a vintage cheese.

Word and note perfect all the way through, and playing pretty much every track from their debut (and only) album, with Amy Winehouse and The Beastie Boys thrown in for good measure, the band well and truly brought the Yorkshire House down. Support on the night was exemplery too.

Lancaster’s Falling Free, Preston’s Templebys, Lancaster’s Divide and Conker, and Cumbria’s Bad Transmission played excellent sets, but the night was all Carpe’s.

If you never saw them, well, you really did miss out.