Hold Your Horse Is - West End Centre, Aldershot 02/10/10

What have you done in the past four weeks? When you think back, that’s actually quite a long time. Late summer has now turned into a very miserable and wet autumn, the festival season seems a lifetime ago and we’re now looking at booking our Christmas and New Year’s Eve gigs and parties. In that time, Hold Your Horse Is have travelled 4800 miles to play shows in 27 different towns across the UK to support the launch of their colossal ‘Rammin It Home’ EP, released on BSM. Living on £2.50 a day and taking in everything from haunted houses in Ipswich to chalets overlooking Loch Lomond, they finally returned to the venue closest to home to finish the tour. Looking surprisingly healthy for a band who have lived on the road so long, they had strong and emotive support from Toby Hayes’ Shoes And Socks Off. Toby had joined them for the whole of the ride and seemed shocked and thrilled that he hadn’t had to change strings on his acoustic guitar once. Playing songs from both his albums, alongside a short, sharp cover of The White Stripes’ ‘Little Room’, the highlights were ‘Vice Magazine Has A Lot To Answer For’ and closer ‘I’m A World Class Assasin’ with its refrain of “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. After his set, HYHI came on stage to a rapturous welcome and launched straight into the recent free download ‘You Show Up’, Robin Pearson’s voice still crystal clear, James Penny bunny-hopping across stage and Chris Rouse forceful presence on the drums as imperative as ever. A chant of Robin’s hometown, “Fleet, Fleet, Fleet”, started up between every song – much to the others’ disdain, who tried in vain to unsuccessfully get the crowd to shout about their home of Frimley. As the set went on, all three members seemed to be on a mission to play faster than is physically possible, egging each other on, it was mesmerising to hear and watch, but with the sweat dripping off all members in places that made no sense, you wonder how it made them feel. Nowhere was this more present than on old favourite ‘Stranger’, which was rapidly brutal. The finale of ‘Casual’ and an insanely loud ‘Welcome To Obscurity’, with many at the front screaming along “You’re wrong, I’m right”, felt an apt way to end the tour. Months of planning and hard work had culminated in tonight and the trio were determined to go out in true rock fashion. The solid touring has perhaps made them more cohesive and tighter but they’re no less energetic or exhilarating to watch. It doesn’t stop here for HYHI as they show no signs of letting up, and have many exciting plans for the rest of the year. But to quote one of Robin’s lyrics - tonight, and from all accounts, the whole of the past month has been “fucking rad”.