So a few months ago a lot of bands that I like announced tours, so I went and bought tickets, and it turned out that 4 bands were coming to Glasgow in the space of 3 weeks. Nothing for months then they all come along at once – anyway here’s how the first 2 went…
First up was The Last Shadow Puppets at the Carling Academy. Good venue, good crowd, a fairly mixed audience. This was a proper show – big stage, orchestra up back, Alex and Miles up front with their band. They played most of their album, a few new ones and a couple of covers in just the right mix. The people down the front were doing the usual mosh-pit stuff but given the type of material they were performing it didn’t feel like a normal rock concert and I didn’t feel like getting down and dirty with them. We were fairly far back, but on a raised bit so we got a good view and I was content just to stand back and watch. We got a bit of chat from the guys and a bit of banter between them, but they mainly just got on with it and did their stuff. The songs were pretty much as you hear on the album, there didn’t seem to be much added extra in the live performance, but they are cracking good tunes so that’s not a bad thing.
Support Band – 4 girls who looked like they should be in London fashion week looking very aloof while producing tedious bland pop-rock – 2/10
Merchandise – £18 for a t-shirt that just had TLSP on it – didn’t buy anything – 3/10
Then we had The Mystery Jets at the QMU. It was a bit weird going back to my old student union after so long, but I soon got over that. Audience were mainly students, though there were a few older people there, indeed someone’s mother elbowed me out the way trying to get a better view. This time I would have liked to have been front and centre (well probably front and right to get a better view of William’s insane guitar technique) but I was with Tony and he refuses to go near the front. Instead we positioned ourselves again on a raised bit but this time at the side and much nearer the stage so we got a very good view. The Jets put on a great show – very energetic, enthusiastic, they looked like they were having a good time. They chatted a bit, introduced songs etc but didn’t talk too much. I did like how they all said something (except the drummer). Blaine did more guitar playing than I’ve seen him do on tv / video clips etc which was good, and I thought he was going to do himself an injury smashing his tambourine against his chest so vigorously. I also thought William was going to knock Blaine off his stool a couple of times (accidentally!) but thankfully he remained safely perched. Bassist Kai seemed to have a lot of admirers in the crowd, a bunch of girls near us kept yelling out their love for him at every opportunity which was quite annoying. Otherwise the crowd were fine, and sang, danced and jumped along throughout. Even Tony started getting into it towards the end! They did a good mix of old and newer material, and did change their delivery so that the live versions were different from the recorded versions, and made the effort to make it interesting for the audience and give us something a bit more unique which I like.
After the show we were waiting in the queue for the cloakroom and the band came out and started chatting to people, posing for photos and signing things etc. I spoke to Kapil, William and Blaine (Kai was probably hiding from that group of marauding women), and they all signed my ticket. They all seemed like really nice, friendly, down-to-earth people. They were genuinely interested in whether we’d enjoyed the show and chatted to people about where they were from etc. It was a nice bonus and made the evening extra special.
Support Band – we got there too late to see the first ones, but the second ones were a serious 80s throwback affair channelling Soft Cell – 6/10
Merchandise – £10 for a cool geometric-abstract design with the band name and logo incorporated and a free badge – 9/10 (only cos they didn’t have girls sizes and I had to get a medium boys L )
Next up: Elliot Minor and MGMT
Ruth4Truth 