list.co.uk/music Reviews | MUSIC
HEAVY ROCK HOLY MOUNTAIN The Art School, Glasgow, Sat 5 Apr ●●●●● ALT ROCK ELBOW The Hydro, Glasgow, Sun 6 Apr ●●●●●
‘If you were actually listening to the album, you’d be dead by now,’ claims Holy Mountain frontman Andy McGlone around 45 minutes into the serious aural mugging he and his bandmates are dispensing with a little help from the Art School’s powerful PA and amps, which presumably go up to 12. By the end of this launch gig for the mega-power trio’s new album, Ancient Astronauts, most of the audience were near-deaf rather than near-death.
The Holy Mountain drill is a no-messing, economical celebration of the heavy riff but the band are evolving beyond beefy caveman brutality, and with Graeme Smillie now providing some Keith Emerson licks and a whole new Deep Purple direction on keys, surely the next step is a symphonic collaboration with the RSNO?
Support band Eugene Tombs may be named after an X Files character but musically they offer a David Lynch film soundtrack in one handy set. Their deep, dark, twanging torch songs are laced with sparing bursts of keening clarinet – the only other missing Lynchian element is the perversion of bubblegum pop. (Fiona Shepherd)
Guy Garvey is these days quite the showman. If he’s not exhorting us to shout if we’re in love, or telling us we’re still not louder than Birmingham, he’s switching ‘Irish’ for ‘Scotch’ in the lyrics to a song for a cheap cheer. And the catwalk! Is it left over from the previous night’s Justin Timberlake show or a permanent fixture of this tour? Maybe it’s something about having been subjected to that song over one too many emotion-filled montages in Holby City / Big Brother / the Olympics, but it all feels ever so slightly manipulative. A set full of material drawn mostly from recent release The Take Off and Landing of Everything and its predecessor Build a Rocket Boys! is well received by the crowd, but the albatross of ‘One Day Like This’ hangs heavy around Elbow’s necks – much of the material on those two records feels like it’s straining to be an anthem of such colossal proportions, and getting nowhere interesting in the process. In the pursuit of epicness, Elbow seem to have lost all the subtlety that once made them such an interesting band. (Laura Ennor) ■ See list.co.uk for a longer version of this review.
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POP GOLDFRAPP Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 4 Apr ●●●●● ROCK / POP FRANZ FERDINAND Barrowland, Glasgow, Tue 25 Mar ●●●●●
Alison Goldfrapp has some very, very loyal fans. She trips on stage to excitable cries of ‘we love you Alison’ that emanate somewhat unexpectedly from a crowd that is more than just greying round the edges. As befits such a grown-up pop star, everything about this show feels well put-together – from her outfit, to the songs, to the trajectory of the show itself – it’s all simple but dramatic.
Material from last year’s Tales of Us abounds in the first half. Then, after a quick 45 minutes of the magical and the mystical, Goldfrapp gets everyone on their feet for the first of the big pop hits – ‘Number One’. It actually feels a bit run-of-the-mill after what we’ve just seen, but things soon get back on track with ‘Ride a White Horse’, which expertly mixes those poppy hooks and thumping bass lines with that element of the fantastical.
The final two songs of the encore showcase the two extremes of Goldfrapp’s sound at their very best: Felt Mountain’s otherworldly, lazy ‘Lovely Head’ (‘it’s about an ex . . . they usually are,’ she deadpans) and stomping, sexy closer, ‘Strict Machine’. (Laura Ennor) ■ See list.co.uk for a longer version of this review.
‘Alright Glasgow? It’s good to see you!’ Frontman Alex Kapranos beams at a rapturous, sold-out Barrowland, launching into a massive 20-song set that never lets up, a blistering performance featuring cuts from across their impressive back catalogue.
Tracks from last year’s Right Thoughts, Right
Words, Right Action, including new single ‘Fresh Strawberries’, are well received by the dancing throng, who sing along to every word. ‘Right Action’ has the impassioned hometown crowd punching the air while a ten-minute version of ‘Can’t Stop Feeling’ from 2009’s Tonight is a real highlight.
Unsurprisingly, the warmest reception is reserved
for the oldest material. Favourites ‘The Dark Of The Matinee’ and ‘Do You Want To’ spark feverish crowd surfing, while ‘Take Me Out’ has a smiling Kapranos lead the crowd through a mass singalong. A perfect encore includes ‘This Fire’ which sees the band mount podiums to oversee the carnage as it gets out of control. A decade on from their breakthrough release, Franz Ferdinand have proved that they can still burn this city. (Chris Taylor) ■ See list.co.uk for a longer version of this review.
EXPERIMENTAL WEEKEND FESTIVAL COUNTERFLOWS Various venues, Glasgow, Fri 4–Sun 6 Apr ●●●●●
Back for its third consecutive year, Counterflows returned for a weekender of memorable in-the-moment flashes of not- to-be-repeated inspiration, welcoming its first ‘featured artist’ in veteran US free-jazz saxophonist Joe McPhee.
Friday's late-night event at the CCA, featuring
recent Optimo Music signees Whilst, plus McPhee and DJs General Ludd, proved so popular that the party spilled out from the terrace bar into a lobby below. It rounded off an opening evening that had begun with performances from Polish ambient improviser Ela Orleans in collaboration with Swedish filmmaker Maja Borg, the ethereally hushed tones of Japanese singer-songwriter Ai Aso, and American cosmic busker the Space Lady. Co-organised with Cry Parrot promotions,
English esoteric electro-dance producer Steven Warwick, aka Heatsick, (pictured) gave his four-hour ‘Extended Play’ set which was the highlight of Saturday and possibly the whole weekend. With ad-hoc input from members of Glasgow tribal dancefloor experimentalists Golden Teacher, Whilst, Dam Mantle and shades-sporting sax master-blaster McPhee, Warwick led an elongated loops-based jam, playfully manipulating not just the audio but the entire experience for the crowd. This meant delivering an intense, golden light-show and gallons of dry-ice, with yoga mats and plastic hula-hoops scattered around the dancefloor for spontaneous PE class throwback fun, plus green tea cocktails served at the bar. As the Sunday focus shifted to the Southside
ahead of an evening closer at Glad Café with the Joe McPhee Trio, what wasn’t to love about the Space Lady’s lunchtime show? In a by-turns sunny and rainy Queens Park, cyclists, dog walkers and pram-pushers gathered among hungover faces from the night before. A familiar sight busking on the streets of Boston and San Francisco throughout the 70s and 80s with her home-pimped keyboard, this eccentric’s originals and covers of rock standards were a weird joy to behold. Be it the Sweet’s ‘Ballroom Blitz’ or Peter Schilling’s ‘Major Tom’ or Bowie’s ‘Starman’. As she rightly put it, ‘The Space Lady wouldn’t be worth her word if she didn’t do a David Bowie number.’ (Bruce White)
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