A Trip to see First Aid Kit at Piece Hall, Halifax, UK, 23 June 2022
Sometimes things don’t quite go to plan and this was one of those occasions.
When First Aid Kit announced they would be playing a handful of dates in the UK this summer, I was quick to investigate the options available. My previous two attempts to see them had been thwarted as they’d had to cancel both appearances. The thought of trying to see them at Glastonbury had crossed my mind but the festival was completely sold out. Living in London, my nearest option was Bristol, but taking into account the cost of travel and accommodation, I ended up opting for Piece Hall in Halifax. After all, this looked like an interesting historical venue. Piece Hall is a Georgian building with a large courtyard where cloth was bought and sold during the early industrial revolution. It had now been restored to its former glory as a Grade 1 listed building and the courtyard was now used to host concerts during the summer months. Within an hour, I’d arranged everything. The journey would consist of a two-and-a-half-hour train ride from London, Kings Cross to Halifax, followed by a couple of hundred yards walk to my accommodation and a further few hundred yards stroll to the venue itself. What could be easier?!
A few days before the concert, a national rail strike was announced, and it was taking place the day I was supposed to be travelling! The good news was that my original train was still running. The bad news was that it was terminating at Wakefield which was still considerably short of my destination. The other bad news was that there were no local trains to Halifax.
Come the day of the concert, my journey wasn’t quite as bad as expected. The train to Wakefield ran pretty much to schedule and was half empty. Once in Wakefield, I had a half-hour walk across the city to the main railway station going North and before I knew it I found myself in the city of Leeds. From here there was just one more leg to my journey which was a rather gruelling one-and-a-half-hour bus journey to Halifax. Despite the difficulties, I arrived at my bed and breakfast with plenty of time to spare. After a short rest, I felt somewhat recovered and ventured into town to get something to eat. On the way back I decided to walk around the outside of the venue which had entrances in different streets. Not much was happening at the first entrance other than a few fans gathering there. I walked around to a second entrance where I could hear a sound check in progress. First Aid Kit were singing a new song, ‘Out of My Head’ while, somewhat appropriately, the sound of ABBA was coming from a nearby pub! As I arrived at the third entrance, First Aid Kit were still doing their sound check but were now singing a ballad I didn’t recognise (which I later discovered to be a Harry Styles cover).
After a brief return to the guest house, and an aborted attempt to enter the venue (my tiny rucksack wasn’t tiny enough to satisfy security), I managed to get in. So here I was, despite all the difficulties, in a beautiful historical courtyard with the sun shining, waiting for First Aid Kit’s first UK appearance since 2018!
Looking around, I could see people of all ages ranging from young children to those in their seventies. There isn’t a typical age group for FAK fans, they seem to appeal to all ages. There was even a guy in a ‘Life is Strange’ t-shirt who had, most likely, discovered the band through the video game of the same name. First Aid Kit had done well to get a gig at Piece Hall. Some big names were performing here this summer: Duran Duran, Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher (formerly of Oasis), Nile Rodgers & Chic, and even Tom Jones! I didn’t have to wait long for the support act, CMAT and her band to come on stage. The singer, wearing heart-shaped sunglasses, a cowboy hat and bubbling with energy, was entertaining enough and received enthusiastic applause at the end of her set. Up until this point the audience had been rather sparse but now the venue started to fill up.
During the interval I became aware of a very slight cough, in fact, so mild, I hardly paid it much attention. After all, I’d felt fine all day up until this point. In any case, by the time First Aid Kit’s backing band appeared, I became distracted by what was happening on the stage. The new band was made up of three Swedish musicians: Freja Drakenberg (keyboards), Gabriel Runemark (drums) and Johannes Runemark (guitar). They began to play an intro which I soon recognised as an instrumental version of the new single, ‘Angel’. It occurred to me that some fans might have been a bit confused by this, since they may not have been aware that FAK had a new backing band! Any lingering doubts were soon resolved when Klara (closely followed by Johanna) walked out onto the stage strumming the opening chords of ‘King of the World’. The loud applause reflected the band’s long absence from the UK! After ‘King of the World’ it was straight into ‘It’s a Shame’ which for some reason, always seems to be their second song! First Aid Kit sounded as good as ever and, as expected, their new backing band was excellent. The only thing missing was the sound of Melvin Duffy’s pedal steel. After introducing themselves, FAK launched straight into ‘Emmylou’, which was a bit of a surprise since they usually played this towards the end of their set.
First Aid Kit had written some new songs but so far they’d stuck to the old ones. This was about to change with the world premiere of ‘Turning onto You’, a laid-back folk song that reminded me of The Kinks. If one world premiere wasn’t enough Klara and Johanna now got together with keyboard player Freja Drakenberg to sing the Harry Styles ballad ‘Boyfriends’, one of the songs I’d heard during the sound check. You never know what to expect when it comes to First Aid Kit covers. One minute it’s Black Sabbath, the next Harry Styles!
It had been sunny when I arrived but not long into First Aid Kit’s set, it started to rain. People hadn’t come prepared! Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the rain eased off. The show continued with three songs from their last album, Ruins: the sing-along ‘Hem of Her Dress’, ‘To Live a Life’ and a cracking version of ‘Rebel Heart’ which received generous applause. Older classics, ‘The Lion’s Roar’ and ‘Wolf’ followed before Klara and Johanna introduced their new band. Another new song: ‘Out of My Head’ seemed to go down well with the audience (this was one they’d played during the sound check). Back to an old classic, ‘Stay Gold’ which had the crowd clapping along enthusiastically and finally ‘Fireworks’ before they quietly left the stage.
Encores are pretty much guaranteed at this type of event and it wasn’t long before the two sisters and their band were back on stage. It seemed a pretty good bet they’d kick off with ‘Angel’, in fact, a winning bet, as it turned out! ‘Angel’ is probably FAK’s most ‘pop’ sounding song to date. Most fans seem to it, although a minority aren’t happy with the move away from folk and country (a couple of people even compared it to Christian rock – not sure what Klara and Johanna would make of that one!). From a personal point of view, the thing I like most about First Aid Kit is you never know what they’re going to come up with next. Could be opera next time, who knows?!
It was around this point I noticed my cough had gotten worse and I now felt very tired. I put the cough down to mild hay fever (I’d had something similar before), and I thought the tiredness was probably a result of the long journey. First Aid Kit ended the show with ‘Master Pretender’ and the now compulsory ‘My Silver Lining’ which had the audience singing along. “Come on Halifax!”, Klara shouted. The crowd had seemed relatively subdued at the start of the concert but had become more animated as the show progressed, and there were loud cheers as Klara and Johanna took their bows and left the stage.
As the audience dispersed I tried to move toward the exit but my leg muscles were hurting like mad. I felt exceptionally tired and could barely walk! The few hundred yards back to my hotel seemed to go on forever. It was at this point it really dawned on me that I might have COVID! During the next few hours, my symptoms got considerably worse and later tests confirmed what I had suspected. I’d managed to avoid COVID since the start of the pandemic but had finally succumbed while watching my favourite band!
Getting myself back to London was far from straightforward but, thankfully, I managed it and, after a couple of weeks of feeling pretty sick, I made a full recovery. In the end, this turned out to be a concert I won’t forget, but for the wrong reasons!!
PS. Apologies to any fans I might have infected!