GANS live at Hebden Bridge Trades Club: Gig Review

Live4ever 25 November, 2025

A photo of the band Gans

Gans by Benji Charles

4.5 stars hq

GANS are not the only loud two-piece around, but they’re definitely the hardest and funkiest.

“Make a circle, you bastards!”

Not the typical rallying cry you’d expect on a Tuesday night in Hebden Bridge, but then nothing about GANS tonight at the Trades Club feels typical.

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Within minutes it becomes clear this isn’t a gig, it’s a show. As much performance as party, with GANS leading the charge throughout.

Whether they’re dancing with the crowd, ordering shots at the bar or even leaving the room entirely to perform in the bar next door, they’re in control every step of the way.

This is what live music should be; no album could convey this; no earphones are good enough to bring their music to life in this way.

The obvious comparisons with GANS are bands like IDLES and Soft Play, and they’re justified (and even heard on the night), but watching them tear through their set tonight, it’s clear GANS have something those bands don’t: soul.

An actual ability to make you move rather than make you righteously riled up. Their music has a contagiousness and a central funky drive.

The band demands that no one stands still at of their gigs, but they’re wasting their breath; you wouldn’t be able to if you tried. As brilliant as IDLES are, even their biggest fans would struggle to dance to them.

Really, GANS have more in common with bands like Lo-Fidelity Allstars (think Battle Flag or Warming Up The Brain Farm) or early LCD Soundsystem (Movement, Losing My Edge). You could even draw a dotted line to early Kasabian (Club Foot and its brutal baseline).

GANS relish exploring punk aggression through dance rhythms, like when disco met punk in the 70s and gave us The Clash’s Magnificent Seven or The Slits’ I Heard It Through the Grapevine, only more intense.

And it’s hard to believe two people can make this kind of noise. They’re not the only loud two-piece around, but they’re definitely the hardest and funkiest.

I THINK I LIKE IT goes off like a grenade. They said jump. What else could you do? A FOOL hits like a tsunami of bricks, while IN TIME is abrasive and intoxicating in that perfect sweet spot where discomfort becomes addictive.

And OH GEORGE wails with such conviction you have to feel concerned for George, whomever he may be.

Or you have left turns like THE KING’S HEAD, where a rant against ‘flag shaggers’ culminates in a northern crowd chanting about finding themselves in the ‘P.U.B.’, and they didn’t need to be asked twice.

When the remix of THIS PRODUCT arrives, the party truly ignites. It’s infectious, and that’s selling it short. Live, it becomes full theatre, with GANS’ drummer Euan Woodman sliding across the floor, dancing in and with the crowd and becoming part of the chaos they’ve created rather than simply watching it boil over with mischievous glee.

And there is chaos. At points they even sound like Snapped Ankles, all while people are literally snapping ankles.

While the crowd watches on as someone is carried out by mates wearing their injury like a badge of honour. Everyone just gets it. It’s carnage, but the good kind.

What’s also shocking is that for a band with one album, they’ve left some absolute bangers like FAR AND WIDE and NIGHTWALKING un-played. They have so much heavy artillery to choose from songs of this calibre can be left underplayed.

And when it’s over, it’s over. No encore, no explanation. Just a triumphant walk through the crowd, shaking hands, to the exit.

GANS know how to put on a show. Not just play music or be a ‘good live band’, they’re natural performers who feed off the energy in the room.

It feels like you get what you give, and if you’re ever unfortunate enough to see a ‘bad’ GANS performance, that’s probably on you. They show up ready to throw down. The only question they ask is: are you?

To steal the name of their debut album: watching GANS is Good For The Soul. So watch GANS.

Dylan Llewellyn-Nunes

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Tags:Dylan Llewellyn-Nunes, GANS