My return to live music kicked off in style last weekend with Hugh Reed & the Velvet Underpants in the Bungalow Bar in Paisley. This weekend was what you could call the First Big Weekend (copyright: Arab Strap) of my 2021 gig calendar with not two but three consecutive nights of live music. Bring it on. (Not sure if I should be apologising to my family or whether they were just glad to see the back of me for three nights…)
I’m not going to deny, it wasn’t without some trepidation that I was returning to gigs, and not just due to COVID and everything that goes along with that, but also the being around people in general, and social anxiety aspect of it all. I needn’t have worried though, the combination of everything that occurred across all three nights made for a special weekend. Not only because of the live music, but because, despite my fears, I met so many wonderful people who I’ve either not seen for an eternity, or have only ever met via social media. Everything gelled into what became a celebration of everything that is great about live music and the Glasgow music scene and I’ve come away with such a good feeling, it felt like a kind of extended music therapy session.
The Primitives – Broadcast
“Starts Thursday as usual…”
Having said that, my story begins in an awkward bar situation. Broadcast is the venue. Bang next door to the very venue I saw my last gig in Glasgow on 5th February 2021, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy. The Primitives gig had been rescheduled at least 3 times prior to the final date, 9th Sept 2021 – June 2020, Sept 2020, Jan 2021.
Considering the last time I’d seen them was in the 1980’s, in reality a few months wasn’t a massive wait. But I arrived too early, not realising there was not support and had to sit on my own in the bar nursing a Diet Coke and scrolling through my phone looking at posts I’d seen a million times that day, trying to look relaxed and comfortable when in reality it was entirely the opposite. That 20 minutes or so felt excruciating. I have no issues attending gigs solo, dark venues, loads of people only focussed on the band in front of them. But sitting in an open bar on my own makes me fell really self conscious.
Thankfully by the time I drained the dregs of the drink, the venue was open so I made my way down to the, new look revamped basement venue, took up my prime viewing position and awaited the band. This Primitives tour is an acoustic/electric tour, thankfully, the night they played Glasgow was an electric date. Not that they wouldn’t have been amazing acoustically. The night was electric in more ways than one, the atmosphere was positively crackling in anticipation of the bands arrival. So much so that a false start as the stage door briefly opened caused a brief exhale of breathe and a mis-timed cheer.
When they appeared a few minutes later, and launched into I’ll Stick With You, quickly followed by Thru the Flowers, it was as if the last 30 odd years hadn’t happened, and I was back in my gig heyday in the 80’s. The whole set was a career spanning crowd pleaser,
Tracy was on top form, owning the new Broadcast stage alongside Paul, with the solid rhythm section keeping everyone in check. When I mention the last 30 years never happened – I also wonder – do Tracy and Paul have paintings in their attics? Anyway, the set was flawless (apart from a humorous faux pas mid-set) and the small but enthusiastic crowd lapped up every second, every lyric, every riff and nuance of the night. The newer songs stood side by side with the classics, Rattle My Cage a particular highlight, alongside the likes of Really Stupid and set closer Way Behind Me.
We were baying for more and the band obliged with Spacehead and Everything’s Shining Bright. Tracy glanced in Paul’s direction, I got the impression she was ready to do more, but it was game over, the band took their applause and exited stage left. A happy crowd dispersed and went their separate ways, Smiles aplenty. As I reached my car and checked my phone, I kicked myself for beating a hasty retreat as a friend posted a picture with Tracy in the venue… Onwards to Barrowland.
Arab Strap/Cloth – Barrowland
“Then on Friday we went through to the Arches Barrowland…”
As the first day of Glasgow’s festival TRNSMT entered its first evening, I made my way through crowds of bucket hats and identikit teens towards the venerable Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow’s East End. The return of Falkirk fun boys Arab Strap providing the pull to those with a more enlightened and unshockable palate, and their return to the live arena following their reformation and release of the remarkable As Days Get Dark album.
Before everybody’s favourite miserable bastards took to the stage it was down to Cloth to warm up the Barrowland crowd. Their Last Night From Glasgow released self titled 2019 debut album received high praise and plaudits on its release and they did a sterling job of bringing their delicately hushed finessed alt rock to the Barrowland crowd, The subtlety of the trio’s set demanded your full attention so as not to miss a second of their skillfully arranged low key blissed out song structures. Two bands of the weekend down and so far so good. But not just good. Soul satisfyingly good.
Malcolm “shagger” Middleton and Aidan “did someone just call Malcolm shagger? You know it’s me that writes the songs? Moffat were on the form of their lives, it was like welcoming back an old friend, the kind that you see once in a blue moon, but when you see them, you slip back into your old ways instantly as if you got together every weekend. The band opened with their first single from their return to the fray, The Turning of Our Bones, progressing to then play a set that picked infamous highlights from throughout their illustrious career.
The new songs shine when played live. Kebabylon and Tears on Tour both raising a wry smile on my face, and Fable of the Urban Fox a particular highlight, the intro going down a storm with the partisan crowd “This song is called Fuck Priti Patel”. Every time the played a song it induced a little flutter in my heart as my brain repeated the same words “I love this song”.
The band raised the Barrowland roof as they performed their anti-hit The First Big Weekend. Every word of the song being sung back in unison. The highlight of the evening for me was when the band left the stage, and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. To hear a packed Barrowland sing back the refrain “Went out for the weekend, it lasted for ever, high with our friends it’s officially summer.” for what felt like nigh on five minutes was a sight and sound to behold. Quite a surreal experience and it sent tingles up and down my spine.
Aidan and Malcolm returned to the stage stunned by the reaction and as if as a foil to the epic sounding full band sound, they delighted the sold out Barrowland to the acoustic classics Packs of Three and the phenomenal The Shy Retirer. What a night. Quite emotional. A sudden “Goodnight Glasgow – Fuck the Tories” and the band were gone. Onwards to The Glad Cafe…
Life Model/Deer Leader – The Glad Cafe
“…when we got home we decided to go down to John’s indie disco The Glad Cafe…”
Unlike the Arab Strap song the final day of my Big Weekend was Saturday, and an intimate launch gig for both Deer Leader and Life Model’s debut albums (its that pesky Last Night from Glasgow again!) The venue was the wonderfully intimate Southside venue, The Glad Cafe.
Having arrived early and taken up my position near the back at a pillar, as the venue filled I found myself right at the front, a place where I don’t usually feel comfortable. But tonight, experiencing Deer Leader’s profoundly affecting We’ve Met Before … Haven’t We in full glorious live technicolour, it was the perfect place to be. The Pixies coined the phrase loudQUIETloud in the title of a documentary about the band and their music. While stylistically it ain’t the same, the phrase describes the music of Deer Leader perfectly.
Just watching the band in action building the multiple layers of their sound was intriguing. While listening was an assault on all the emotions. There were moments where you can hear a pin drop in the venue as the rapt audience gave the songs their full undivided attention, then you have their three guitar sonic attack, a cacophony of mellifluous noise transporting you to someplace else. The performance of the album worked awesomely in the live arena, variously provoking tingles down my spine, moments of being close to tears and overwhelming euphoria. Epic.
Between bands as I headed to the bar for a drink I bumped into several amazing people, made some new acquaintances and finally met up with people who up until now had been mere images on social media. You all know who you are. Special people indeed.
It was the turn of Life Model to entertain, and entertain they did in bucketloads. Their heady blend of indie pop and US slacker rock is an intoxicating brew. Their alluring dream pop, heavenly harmonies and harder edged riffing had the spellbound audience eating out of the palms of their hands. It is nigh on impossible to pick some highlights when you have an album of the sheer quality of Lost on Weekdays/Lonely By Sunday behind you. But if I was forced to choose Skin and Bones had me hexed and hypnotised whilst the enchanting Saskia was a triumph. They also brought things full circle for me when they played Walking Backwards about “the bit between Broadcast and Sleazys” the first Glasgow venue I was back at for gigs in 2021 and the last one I was at in 2020 before lockdown.
Of course, by this time I’d missed my last train, but that didn’t matter, I was bathing in the afterglow of the night with some of my ‘new’ friends, looking forward to more of the same. My walk home seemed to fly by as I walked on air with an immense feeling of well-being. As a meme I posted on Instagram stated “Music is what feelings sound like”. Welcome back live music.
Ultimately, music is the main reason I go to gigs, but this weekend proved to me just what an important part of my life attending gigs is and what I’ve really missed over the last 18 months. It’s more than just listening to music, it’s losing yourself in your own thoughts and absolutely living in the moment (as the inspirational Kathleen MacDonald states in the samples used by Deer Leader in their set).
An opportunity to just forget the shite life throws at you and anything else that is going on in your world. But it isn’t just about the music. It is the opportunity to meet like minded individuals, people who are on the same wavelength as you, who just “get” it, and despite my fears of saying the wrong thing, or acting weird, understand and accept you with no judgement. Despite going to each one of these gigs on my own, I left each gig having met some amazing friends old and new. That is what going to gigs means to me.
Side 2 of Life Model’s album, Lonely By Sunday summed up my feeling today, having had three gigs in a row after a drought of nigh on two years. Many more of these nights to come in the coming weeks and months. It’s great to be back.
Great review of gigs – also tried my best on the -bettymayonnaise fb page – it takes a while to get back into the habit though- cheers!