You can’t beat Headrow House for an intimate, warehouse-vibe show. And where else would you rather be on a wintry Monday night?

As the room began to fill on 29th November and the red lighting took hold, Birmingham’s The Novus kicked off VLURE’s Leeds show in style.

If you’re not yet acquainted, they have a grungy but sort of groovy niche, and their set was very immersive. From the vocalist’s marching around the room to singing in the faces of audience members, they not only warmed up everyone present, but supplied a taste of what was to come from the headliners. The Novus were a highly suitable support act indeed.

While I found a new favourite in ‘Refrain’, their standard cocktail of angsty, psychedelic rock was on the menu throughout every track they shook up. And they proved they weren’t just there to play, but to put on a full performance.

The 30-minute gap between sets passed fast, and more bodies entered the room before there was a scuzzy, electronic precursor and VLURE’s tour manager took to the microphone for a poetic reading. He introduced the band as “The sexy leather jacket shagger crew” — the colloquial term in there is better known to Scots readers, I’m sure.

It was VLURE’s debut tour, ahead of their just-announced supporting run with White Lies in 2022.

VLURE supply an energetic, effervescent flavour of Glasgow’s thriving music scene, which is why I’m such a huge fan. Plainly, they’re an exciting outfit. But beyond that, they truly are a striking, blinding example of why Scottish music is having more than a moment right now — and rightly so.

As per expectations, their lead vocalist sang predominantly from in the crowd, owning the place and, as their tour manager added in his speech, “above all else, [leaving] a lasting impression”. There’s a showmanship to what VLURE do. While also remaining storytellers — poets, if you will — they navigate a terrain of electronic sound as they share their musings. Meanwhile, there’s something endearingly threatening, imposing and almost invasive with their eye contact, but it works and it’s hypnotising, to their advantage.

Naturally, the band brought out all the hits during their theatrical-esque set. That meant they totally ticked the boxes for me, with ‘Heartbeat’, ‘Show Me How To Live’ and ‘Shattered Faith’ absolute winners. And if those weren’t statements enough, VLURE wrapped up with the explosive ‘Euphoria’. Pretty apt, if you ask me…