Music Review

Idlewild ; The Remote Part 20th Anniversary – O2 ABC

Live music, Music Review

It’s nine years to the date since Idlewild played The Remote Part in full, midway through a sold out run of album shows at Glasgow’s legendary King Tut’s.

Now two sold out nights in succession at the O2 ABC to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the album’s release is indisputable proof of its popularity and continued relevance to fans. Whether The Remote Part is your favourite Idlewild record, or the album that turned you onto the band, it continues to hold a special place in the hearts of fans. For many it’s considered Idlewild’s coming of age album; perfecting their sound and songwriting, and bettering their contemporaries with a blend of vividly poetic lyrics, enviable riffs, tempered piano and anthemic choruses. The audience demographic tonight suggests it was many people’s coming of age soundtrack as well. There’s a weight of anticipation in the air.

A bonus for those who arrive early is a short set from Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison and performance poet Michael Pedersen. Each wordy and melodic in their own ways, the cherubic Pedersen delights with his “lippy Scots” tales of romantic disappointment and smut, while Hutchison delivers a brief but no less rousing set of acoustic songs from the Frabbit back catalogue.

Scott Hutchison

When Idlewild take to the stage they are met with an excitable reception, almost congratulatory, before what feels like an expectant pause. The question of whether they will start with the album is answered with the opening guitar of Little Discourage ringing out as the band spring into action. Four more songs from 100 Broken Windows follow before Roddy Woomble breaks to introduce the main event. From this point on the crowd starts to loosen up, with permission from the front man. “You’re allowed to dance and move around”, he encourages before A Modern Way of Letting Go. A section of the audience complies and before too long there are crowdsurfers being lifted over the barrier.

“You know what comes next; the element of surprise is lost” Woomble concedes as the band ascends with a sparkling and emphatic performance of one of their biggest ‘hits’, American English, a song usually reserved for much later in the set.It’s just that way with The Remote Part, it plays almost like a greatest hits with so many songs still featuring in recent set lists. The crowd sing along and mean every word, belting it out like it’s Flower of Scotland. Yet it’s the lesser played songs, especially the back end of the record, that really shine and the crowd engagement on Out Of Routine and Stay The Same, with hands in the air and voices raised, reinforces the depth and strength of this album. It is thoroughly adored.

The band are having a great time of it too; Rod Jones is his typical hyperactive self, running a personal parkour route between amps, monitors and drum riser. Woomble and drummer Colin Newton are smiling almost constantly, soaking up the atmosphere. Relative new recruits Hannah Fisher (fiddle + guitar), Luciano Rossi (bass + keys) and Andrew Mitchell (bass + keys + guitar) who all joined the band for their most recent album elevate these old songs with their measured playing and exquisite harmonies. At times you catch them watching the crowd and each other with a joyful wonder. They are part of something truly special.
By the time natural closer In Remote Part / Scottish Fiction plays the audience have reached a state of peaceful ecstasy, allowing themselves and the room’s giant mirror ball to be engulfed in violin and poetry. It’s bliss. After a brief ‘thank you and goodnight’ the band return for an eight song encore, a bit of a throwback to their more recent shows including the reworked When I Argue I See Shapes, and the beautiful now almost choral renditions of I Understand It and El Capitan. They close out the night with a fevered finale in A Film For The Future, leaving punters sweaty, smiling, panting and emotionally spent; in many ways, young without youth.

Mogwai – SSE Hydro

Live music, Music Review

Sacred Paws power through songs from this year’s SAY Award winning debut ‘Strike A Match’. With a charming interplay between softened jangly guitars, shadowing the duelling vocal melodies of guitarist Rachel Aggs and drummer Eilidh Rodgers, the band have perfected their own style of sun-drenched post-punk, with the wit and wordiness of late eighties girl bands. Although quite fast-paced and light, in contrast to what is to come, it sets a good mood for the few hundred die-hard punters who have arrived early to get a good position for the night. The band are in high spirits too, smiling and bouncing around, firing through the songs with minimal banter. As they near the end of their time they consult on whether to drop a song from the set but decide not to. “We must be playing these really fast”, they note. They are actually, and the result is a few people jumping about down the front with more finding space to dance at the back, while on stage Aggs’ takes every short opportunity to move around, translating high energy guitar pop into kicks and nods within the small space between her microphone and amp. They wrap up the set with the album’s title track, dedicating it to everyone at Rock Action, who you imagine must be half the audience judging by its reception.

A brief turnaround brings revered English rock band Ride to the stage. A generous crowd has assembled for the beginning of their set, at least four or five times greater than that present for Sacred Paws, and the audience reaction is as enthusiastic as any headliner would hope to receive.  The band lead off with ‘Lannoy Point’ and ‘Charm Assault’ from this year’s highly acclaimed comeback album ‘Weather Diaries’ before indulging the audience with a mix of old favourites from their earliest records, that blend cohesively without sounding immature, worn or dated. Ride prove an excellent and popular choice of support for Mogwai, matching their beautiful darkness through droning distorted guitars, grinding bass and dreamy vocals, whether from Mark Gardener or Andy Bell, that float and cascade over a wall of sound. Ride are natural forerunners to the timeless guitar-heavy sound that Mogwai have become renowned for. Their own brand of psychedelic fuzz pop captures the audience and before long everyone is either swaying along or rocking with fists in the air. There’s no question about these veterans; Ride are as good as they ever were, if not better, and the swooning crowd responds as though they’ve already had their money’s worth from the night.

Ride

There’s a calm but expectant energy in the room – a lot of people with earplugs at the ready – and a look around the crowd reveals more and more familiar faces. It says everything about a band and their place within the industry that the whole Scottish music scene has come out to see them play their biggest hometown show. Providing an auspicious welcome to the stage then is the merriest of them all, none other than Aidan ‘Santa’ Moffat, fully fitted in festive attire and accompanied by sleigh bells.

A Mogwai concert is really a living art installation; the band sculpt a physical environment out of sound and the audience is at once integrated and yet completely apart from it. That environment can be dense, heavy, coarse, dark and it can be fragile, bright and spacious. Such is their command of dynamics and frequency that with only elementary rock instrumentation they reimagine vast, orchestral landscapes. It’s the very height of drama; at one moment the audience is completely mesmerised by Alex Mackay’s guitar droning as delicate as a slowly drawn bow across a violin until suddenly Cat Myers’ drumming erupts as if to signal the end of days. But for the lyrical ‘Party In The Dark’ from new album ‘Every Country’s Sun’, barely a word is said in the one hour and forty-five minute set but for Stuart Braithwaite’s regular “thank you” or “thanks very much”. Words are not required. Stage lighting weaves back and forth, up and down, crafting a blanket of colours around the band.  Silhouettes around the room create an eerie animation and at times the strobing becomes so intense that it forms a cloud around the stage, freezing the band in a monochrome diorama while the music overrides all other senses. The crowd goes willingly on this journey, watching from the outside until the space between simply melts away; waves of sound and light washing over every surface.

Mogwai

The set winds powerfully towards its close with favourites ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ and ‘Remurdered’  before finishing with new song ‘Old Poisons’. But it’s only just gone 10.30pm and the crowd are howling out for more. Guitars are still ringing and the room is dark. After a minute the band return to the stage for a three song encore. A deep orange light paints the stage in a magnificent sunset throughout ‘Every Country’s Sun’. It’s appropriately cinematic. Braithwaite delivers his final thank yous before descending into the beautiful ‘Auto Rock’, followed in jagged contrast by ‘We’re No Here’. Blinding golden light splits the stage as the last notes resonate until the very last second and fans are left basking in the glory of all that has been. Looking around at the smiling faces half-silhouetted by the brilliant glow of the Mogwai supernova, no-one can hide the warmth that penetrates their soul, that continues to burn long after the dark silence falls.

BNQT – Oran Mor

Live music, Music Review

A supergroup? In 2017? Perhaps in the digital age, where anyone can record an album in their bedroom and become an overnight sensation -or fad- through online marketing and distribution, the idea that a collective of successful recording artists could come together to create an album doesn’t seem that far-fetched.  When bands do collaborations these days though it usually involves a guest vocalist or two, maybe a remix. The idea of a supergroup seems rather old-fashioned, from a time when rock stars were even bigger than their egos and in the last decade or so few bands have attained the level of stardom to even qualify for such a title. BNQT (pronouced “banquet”) probably border on cult supergroup status, consisting  of 5 lead vocalists and what is essentially a very well established house band. Despite touting themselves as a “poor man’s Traveling Wilburys” the band which features members of Grandaddy, Franz Ferdinand, Travis, Band of Horses and Midlake have produced an album well worth their investment. Volume 1 is a fine collection of songs reflecting the diverse influences of its respective contributors while sounding cohesive enough to be translated into a live setting by one single band.

The possibilities for musical collaboration on record are nearly unlimited by geography but the challenge – and real fun – for BNQT would always be to take these songs on the road. Pulling artists together from across continents to performs songs that have never been played live before is quite an achievement in scheduling and with the exception of Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses) everyone in the band made it to the Glasgow show. Originally announced for the Old Fruitmarket, the gig was moved to Oran Mor a few weeks out, and even on the night tickets were still available. There’s something strange about the way BNQT have grown their following; while the album clearly advertises the fact it is this supergroup collaboration by naming all the contributors, the bands themselves have not been cross-promoting, almost as if the project doesn’t exist. In this day and age it’s customary to trade on your name, to bandwagon, to associate yourself with your brand. BNQT seem to be starting from scratch, with a little over 6000 Facebook followers. It doesn’t make sense that a band comprising such a well known line-up could fail to sell out a 500 capacity venue in what should be considered a second hometown. Ultimately, for the fans who did show up none of that matters.

Opening the show is the talented singer-songwriter Chris Stills. On the subject of artists not trading on their names yes, he is the son of folk rock legend and original supergroup member  Stephen Stills. He is also an accomplished musician in his own right, two solo albums to the good and a new  single This Summer Love released recently ahead of a new album due in 2018. His short set of acoustic bluesy rock jams is well received by the intimate crowd, building energy from the mellow opening new single and follow up Just Like The Rain. He chats casually between songs and there’s a feeling that the room is moving to the engaged side of indifference. After inviting the crowd to “sing along in the choruses” he launches into an extended rock rendition of Eleanor Rigby before closing out his set with 100 Year Thing, receiving much more than polite applause.

When BNQT take to the stage at 9pm there’s a crowd gathered to about half fill the room. There’s a buzz. Those who know, know. The set opens with the same drive as the album, with Eric Pulido’s (Midlake) lead single Restart, before he passes frontman duties to Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle to lead on 100 Million Miles, followed up by Fran Healy’s Mind of a Man. The audience are loving it instantly and although it’s apparent there are fans of each of the bands represented here, everyone has come to enjoy the songs. It’s probably just as well because the BNQT songs prove to be the strongest performances of the night. Pulido mentions the fact they don’t have enough material to fill a whole set, asking if it would be alright for them to play some songs from their catalogues. The crowd cheers and they slip into a rendition of Grandaddy’s Hewletts Daughter. Pulido immediately seeks affirmation from Lytle, before passing microphone duties to Fran Healy.

The introduction of Travis’ anthem Why Does It Always Rain On Me is one of the few excuses to utilise Midlake’s Jesse Chandler on flute; for most of the set he’s contributing keys and vocals. It’s at about this point that the real context of the gig sinks in, as the song falls about as flat as it’s ever sounded. One punter observed “It’s a bit like a wedding band with these covers” and the realisation comes home, that this is a band apart from its components. While they may be equal or greater than the sum of their parts when it comes to playing BNQT songs, or even Midlake songs which fare quite well in the set, they as frontmen are not everything in their own music. Still, it’s a lot of fun and that is the feeling that runs throughout the performance; BNQT is a group of songwriters and musicians having fun creating and working together. At intervals throughout the night each member takes an opportunity to thank their bandmates for allowing them to be part of the experience and each time compliments are delivered with genuine humility, and met with heartfelt gratitude by both the band and the audience. Chris Stills even joins the band mid-set to flesh out the sound for his own performance and is well received amid the flow of face-melting harmonies and bodacious guitar solos from Joey McLellan.

After playing though every song on Volume 1 the set closes out with a run of 4 covers including Sing, Head Home, AM180 and an exuberant singalong with Alex Kapranos to a song he introduces as a surprise choice of cover, “the b-side to the 4th single on our last album” which of course turns out to be Franz Ferdinand’s mega hit Take Me Out. They leave the stage with the crowd demanding more and return to oblige with a two song encore, this time another 2 covers and true covers, to honour their own rockstar influences; Tom Petty’s Won’t Back Down and The Beatles Revolution.

Even after all that it’s hard to explain what this so-called supergroup is, beyond a bewildering musical exercise, but it’s good. It’s very good. May we see their like again.

This review was originally published by The Modern Record

Photography featured in The Independent

Blanck Mass – Centre for Contemporary Arts

Live music, Music Review

For anyone fresh to the Blanck Mass live experience and unsure of what to expect from tonight’s performance, one thing should be blatantly clear from the signage placed throughout the CCA:

“TONIGHT’S GIG WILL BE EXTREMELY LOUD – EARPLUGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR”

As though the message wasn’t serious enough, it’s been entirely capitalised.

If there isn’t a weight of expectation from the crowd tonight there is at least a high degree of anticipation, as many of the sold out audience have arrived early, in time to witness Iona Fortune’s suite of spacious instrumental tunes; a free-flowing theme of oriental gongs and chimes paired with heavy bass synth and electronic sounds. Many people choose to sit on the floor in darkness as these noises cascade, the individual pieces punctuated by projections onto a screen above the stage. As soon as the set is finished however it is apparent that there will be standing room only for the main event and patrons are asked to move forward to allow more people inside. The room is filled almost instantly.

Blanck Mass

Blanck Mass aka Benjamin Power arrives to deliver songs from his latest release “World Eater” and suddenly the prediction of the signage rings true. Bass pulsates through the faces of the crowd as they bounce and thrash about, possessed by the buzz and the beat. The driving energy of “The Rat” is all-consuming as bodies rock and sway despite the confinement. Aggressive and urgent and euphoric in equal measure, the music mesmerises in waves; at times tumbling and crashing heavily with an effected vocal line that may or may not be decipherable, and may or may not need to be, while in other moments the flow eases ever so slightly to allow smooth sailing and transition into the next sonic adventure.  As commander on this journey Power is never settled, constantly tweaking his instruments and propelling his audience through swells and turns with some force. It’s beautiful to watch them go with him so willingly and he is rewarded with ecstatic applause at every opportunity. Sadly, with the short set time and relatively lengthy songs this night is over in a flash; an exercise in quality over quantity, though there has certainly been a volume of music transmitted here too, and the audience present as if they’ve had their money’s worth. The earplugs remain in place all the way out onto Sauchiehall St, just in case.

This review was originally published by Rave Child