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Music LIVE REVIEWS
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M O C O T O H P Y E R A C N O E Y, E R A C N O E
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LIVE COMEBACK BLOC PARTY Garage, Glasgow, Tue 19 Jun ●●●●● STONER/ SLUDGE METAL BIG BUSINESS AND UNSANE Nice N’ Sleazy, Glasgow, Thu 5 Jul ●●●●●
‘This is the best possible start to the return of Bloc Party I could ever imagine,’ gushed Kele Okereke as his band made their first official appearance on a stage since October 2009, with rumours abounding that they’d called it a day more than once since then. Yet here they are, Okereke dressed in the full neon rave-kid style he adopted for his solo album in front of a bank of eye-searing lights just waiting to be rolled out in arenas across the land, making Glasgow the lucky city chosen to host their comeback.
It really was some show, not just for the revival of many a Bloc Party classic, including the jagged post-punk thrill of ‘Hunting For Witches’, the goth romance of ‘This Modern Love’, the punch-drunk aggression of ‘Ares’ and the familiar synth-pop pulse of ‘Flux’. There were also a raft of new tracks debuted from their forthcoming album Four, the pick of which were the latterday Blur croon of ‘Real Talk’, the staggering post-punk call to arms of ‘Team A’ (‘not The A-Team,’ cautioned Okereke) and ‘Truth’s gently anthemic tenderness; its key line ‘because I am yours now, truthfully’ doubling as a reaffirmation to his fans. (Paul Little)
Part time Melvins members and full time amp and drum devastators in Big Business, Jared Warren and Joady Willis stick to that very agenda when playing to a packed-out crowd in Sleazys. As a three piece tonight (joined by Scott Martin of Crom/400 Blows) they plough through choice cuts from their albums Mind the Drift and Here Come The Waterworks. Causing mass singalongs and co-ordinated headbanging to ‘Grounds For Divorce’ and ‘Just As The Day Was Dawning’, they whip the crowd into a gurning frenzy. Despite their metal and punk credentials, Big Business in the flesh have an incredible knack for rhythm ’n’ groove, and by ending their set with the almost tribal sounding ‘Guns’ they leave everyone in the room with a snarling grin. The job’s a good ’un.
Following Big Business tonight was never going to be easy – but New York’s finest noise rock stalwarts give it a hell of a go. Still dressed like they’ve stepped out of an ice hockey game at Madison Square Garden, Unsane (pictured) belt through classic and new jams alike, and the harmonica on ‘Alleged’ is still as eerie as it was the first time around. (Nick Herd)
MULTI-VENUE SHINDIG LEITHLATE Various venues, Edinburgh, Thu 28 Jun ●●●●●
On a rare evening of summer sun, for one night only, Leith Walk itself became the little piece of live-art/promenade theatre it’s sort of always been. From Whitespace and Superclub in Gayfield Square at the top to Henderson Halls in South Leith Parish Church at the bottom, some 19 largely bespoke venues from the Windsor Buffet to Oscar’s Alterations, Leith Walk Barber’s Salon and beyond played host to a cavalcade of live music and pop-up exhibitions that fused a civic and social experience with an artistic one to expand the aesthetics of community spirit in the best sense of that much overused phrase. Individual events were sometimes rough and not always ready, but in their willingness to experiment with form, content and circumstance, facilitated an explosion of noisy life that captured a sense of what’s going on artistically away from the city’s designated cultural quarters. The sound may have been a mess for much of the after-show party headlined by Remember Remember’s mighty Steve Reich-for-indie-kids routine, but seeing the multitude of creative types in the same room makes you realise what a glorious playground the neighbourhood’s become. (Neil Cooper)
EXPERIMENTAL NEIL CAMPBELL & MICHAEL FLOWER DUO Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Jul ●●●●●
As Usurper’s Ali Robertson and Malky Duff fidget with their collection of junk, a cassette plays of Robertson intoning a mantra of ‘rain, rain, rain’. Over this, they conduct a conversation about the weather, combining the sublime banality of William McGonagall with the bleak repetitions of Samuel Beckett.
Balloons are inflated, metal is scraped and plastic is rubbed in an investigation of sonic properties. It’s as if the sound poetry of Kurt Schwitters and futurist sound art of Luigi Russolo has been filtered through the Scots surrealism of Ivor Cutler and Bud Neill. Braw.
Taking a break from his ecstatic duo with drummer Chris Corsano, Michael Flower has reunited with his old mucker from Leeds underground collective Vibracathedral Orchestra, Neil Campbell. Flower’s beautiful neon guitar lines plot a course from Dusseldorf to Alpha Centauri, while Campbell’s DIY set up of drum machine, pedals and Casio keyboard conjures a punk- primitive motorik groove. glam-rock riff on the home lap. Noisy, psychedelic splendour. (Stewart Smith)
19 Jul–2 Aug 2012 THE LIST 69
D N A L E C Y R B N A C N U D
MUDDY FESTIVAL T IN THE PARK Balado, near Kinross, Fri 6 to Sun 8 Jul ●●●●●
Anyone who caught this year’s T in the Park on television might have been forgiven for thinking it was a 96-hour mudfight with a little music thrown in as a diversion. While it’s true the weather was more brutal than it has been in many a year, though T was also privy to the show that a majority of its regulars had been awaiting since the end of the last century. At last, The Stone Roses were back.
That was one set of many, however, and the reaction to the rest of T’s line-up had been decidedly equivocal. A lot of the usual crowd seemed aggrieved by the presence of outright pop acts such as Olly Murs, Jessie J and The Wanted (packed to the ankle-deep-in-mud doors with youngsters on Sunday), but there were minor gems among this lot too, not least the presence of the golden-voiced and striking-of-quiff Emeli Sandé on Saturday’s main stage, really playing up the homecoming thing.
While Snow Patrol were a relatively uninspiring Friday headliner, their own tributes to their longtime home Scotland and a customarily roared-out singalong with ‘Run’ were welcome heartwarmers. Yet it was Florence + the Machine who stole the show amid the day’s newly-expanded line-up. Performing before an art deco mirrored microphone and wearing a fitted gold and black ballgown that could only be described as ‘a grower’, she deployed that truly stunning voice on ‘Rabbit Heart’ and ‘Shake It Out’, and a sense of unity with the crowd when she instructed them to ‘try not to get too wet, but get very drunk’.
Despite the populism of a bill that also saw dependable lad-rock artisans Kasabian headline Sunday night, credible thrills abounded here and there, including the wonderful, David Byrne-like post-punk of Brooklyn’s Here We Go Magic, a deservedly packed show from local boys Django Django and the ever- impressive krautrock/shoegaze collision of Sunday night’s the Horrors. There was also a surprisingly excellent show from the long-dissembled original line- up of the Happy Mondays, and a bit of transatlantic glamour from the pastel-dressed, bassline-riding Nicki Minaj. The weekend deservedly belonged to the Stone Roses, however, not just for the expectation they inspired during the rain-sodden misery, but for a well- played set that recreated their heyday with faithful skill – particularly an epic finale that included ‘She Bangs the Drums’ – and a dash of the unexpected, especially Ian Brown seguing a few rapped lines from Eric B & Rakim into ‘Love Spreads. (Paul Little)