We went to see Glasvegas at the Academy last night. It was poor. Really, really, really disappointing. The "wall of noise" was just a tuneless din. You can't even blame the poor acoustics in the venue as Friendly Fires were excellent. I think Glasvegas must have a very good studio producer, as the whole arrangement was all to cock. The energy and power on the album (which I love) is as much about the silences as the full throttle feedback and the chugging bass.
It's the first time I've been to a gig at Manchester University since I left in 1988. Maybe I'm just an old git, but I had a flashback to punk gigs circa 1981 when I'd wish the time away as the noise was just so ear-bleedingly awful, but we were too cool to admit it. So, I can say it now: Insurgents, Warsaw, Anti-Pasti, UK Subs, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Chron-Gen and the Angelic Upstarts. You were rubbish.
4 comments:
I'm so glad that someone else thought the same, they were really poor, came on late, completely out of time on a couple of songs. We left before they finished, something I don't think I've ever done.
I thought they clearly didn't want to be there and if I could I'd ask for a refund!
Shame that Michael. As I wrote back in November, they supported the Bunnymen at the Echo Arena. I put the lack of oomph down to them being the support band in a big venue. You'd expect different when they're headlining wouldn't you? Such a great album too!
I thought about leaving early myself. Especially as the original Abduls was just next door. The best chicken tikka kebabs ever. By the time we left a queue had formed, we have a babysitter on an hourly rate and it was freezing.
But yes, Glasvegas have a feeling about them that this is all going to crash and burn.
Interesting about Glasvegas. I really liked the album but i did think when listening to it that they might struggle to develop their big chorus/major chord/glasgow accent sound over more than one album. Bit like the way franz ferdinand struggled after widely accalimed first album. Almost as if there's a problem in arriving fully formed. Bands which develop their voice slowly through a number of albums - elbow, kings of leon - don't seem to have the same problems.
Surprised they were crap live, though. Glad I chose Villa v FC Zilina over their pre-Christmas gig at Wolves Civic in that case.
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