Gig review: Codefendants at The Key Club, Leeds

Six years ago, Ceschi Ramos arrived at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds to a modest yet loyal turn out of less than 20 people, I was one of those in attendance. I knew there was brilliance waiting for a bigger audience.

On Wednesday at The Key Club Ceschi returned not as a solo act this time but with his new band Codefendants, made up of himself and Sam King of US punk band Get Dead (they are joined creatively in the studio with NOFX’s Fat Mike and collaborate with legendary rapper The D.O.C.).

The kudos of the Fat Wreck Chords attachment and links to NOFX generated a significantly larger crowd and one deserving of the craft and artistry they have worked hard to establish.

Codefendants are a perfect crime of punk and hip-hop. Political, scathing, emotional and high energy, Ceschi’s rapped tales of street life, prison sentences and wasted youth are the perfect unison for the snotty teen punk of NOFX and Get Dead. The unity writes itself.

That Codefendants exist, that we as fans coexist at the same point in life’s exploits and turmoil, to be able to explode in rage and rejoice in love (and moment was spared for two fans to get engaged on stage), all was love and unity between the band and crowd. It was an honour to see Ceschi be the star his act deserves. Its been an awful costly trip, but he made it albeit with a pinch of fat luck.