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Glasvegas Poster
Setlist
Glasvegas Tour Dates
03/04 Late Show with Craig Ferguson
03/04 Los Angeles, CA The Echo 03/06 San Francisco, CA Popscene Read More
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“Welcome back to brilliant” - NME …or … “If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap!”- Mike Myers
Either quote is applicable to Glasgow-based indie quartet ,Glasvegas (the NME quote is in reference to their latest album) as they re-introduced themselves to the U.S. and Minneapolis with a recent intimate club show at the 7th Street Entry.
California indie-rockers, The Ceremonies headed by the three Cook brothers (Matthew, Mark, and Michael), opened the show with selections from their self-titled debut EP (Atom Factory/Capitol Records) with a sound that echoes their influence of '80s post-punk pioneers such as Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cure, and blends that with intelligent lyrics and mindful melodies.
Standout tracks included lead single, ‘Land of Gathering’ and ‘Ballroom Bones’, with the three brothers harmonizing as naturally as family members that grew up together, can do. The band had never been as cold before as they were in Minneapolis, but are used to traveling with Scots, as they previously had opened for The Fratellis on their recent U.S. jaunt, and had an honest excitement about being able to bring their music to new audiences once more.
Glasvegas took the stage for their 75 min. set, opening with the building title track from their latest effort, Later...When the TV Turns to Static (BMG), to whoops and wails from the crowd. The band, all in black and headed by cousins James Allan and Rab Allan along with bassist Paul Donoghue and stand-up drummer Jonna Löfgren is on their 8th tour of the Americas, but hasn’t been seen locally in three+ years, so many in the crowd were eager for their return.
The revelation of the band since the initial time I saw them, was drummer Löfgren who joined the band for last effort, Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\, and who hails from a small town in Northern Sweden, not far from the Arctic Circle. Löfgren joined after their fruitless UK searches to find a replacement for Caroline McKay had them looking in Sweden for a female drummer.
A crude, phone-shot video clip of Löfgren drumming along to the band’s ‘Geraldine’ was sent to their management, and they all met in London over dinner and drinks. When Löfgren didn’t show them her drumming chops before she was sent home, she somewhat doubted her future, but was called shortly after and asked to join the band, the chemistry between members clearly evident then, as was this night on stage.
‘If’, the initial single from the new album, relies on booming percussion from Löfgren, who delivered on this evening, jumping about whilst wearing dark sunglasses, amid a strobe light timed with her beats. Singer Allan kept the crowd entertained in-between, with humorous stories from the road, in a thick Scottish accent that was sometimes hard to decipher.
Older songs predictably received the strongest crowd response, including first hit, ‘Geraldine’, which Allan prefaced with a laugh-out-loud story of a woman singing badly into one of their in-monitor crowd microphones that only the band could hear, and left them looking at each other, to see who was out of tune.
‘Ice Cream Van’ started solemnly with Rab Allan taking the organ to accompany his cousin’s voice, then the song culminating in a huge sound of crashing percussion. ‘Go Square Go’ ended the main set, with the audience chanting the pounding, “here we, here we, here we f**king go!” chorus, some pogoing in place.
The encore started quietly, with Allan pointing out a crowd member who had attended every show on the tour thus far, then went into the touching and elegant ‘A Snowflake Fell (And it Felt Like a Kiss)’, which the crowd requester had mentioned was her wedding song.
After cracking open a Pabst on stage (and showing a bit of a bitter beer face), ‘Choices’ from the new album followed, with its melancholy lyrics and Allan pleading for that glimmer of sunshine in its “I still have choices” chorus line. The anthemic ‘Daddy’s Gone’ closed the evening with resolution, reminding us all that Glasvegas is still a force of sound still worth reckoning and keeping tabs on as to what they do in the future.
The brief U.S. tour ends this week, with a few West Coast dates, and a rare U.S. TV appearance tomorrow night on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson…who happens to also be a fellow Glaswegian.
Either quote is applicable to Glasgow-based indie quartet ,Glasvegas (the NME quote is in reference to their latest album) as they re-introduced themselves to the U.S. and Minneapolis with a recent intimate club show at the 7th Street Entry.
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The Ceremonies Poster
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Standout tracks included lead single, ‘Land of Gathering’ and ‘Ballroom Bones’, with the three brothers harmonizing as naturally as family members that grew up together, can do. The band had never been as cold before as they were in Minneapolis, but are used to traveling with Scots, as they previously had opened for The Fratellis on their recent U.S. jaunt, and had an honest excitement about being able to bring their music to new audiences once more.
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Glasvegas' James Allan
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The revelation of the band since the initial time I saw them, was drummer Löfgren who joined the band for last effort, Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\, and who hails from a small town in Northern Sweden, not far from the Arctic Circle. Löfgren joined after their fruitless UK searches to find a replacement for Caroline McKay had them looking in Sweden for a female drummer.
A crude, phone-shot video clip of Löfgren drumming along to the band’s ‘Geraldine’ was sent to their management, and they all met in London over dinner and drinks. When Löfgren didn’t show them her drumming chops before she was sent home, she somewhat doubted her future, but was called shortly after and asked to join the band, the chemistry between members clearly evident then, as was this night on stage.
‘If’, the initial single from the new album, relies on booming percussion from Löfgren, who delivered on this evening, jumping about whilst wearing dark sunglasses, amid a strobe light timed with her beats. Singer Allan kept the crowd entertained in-between, with humorous stories from the road, in a thick Scottish accent that was sometimes hard to decipher.
Older songs predictably received the strongest crowd response, including first hit, ‘Geraldine’, which Allan prefaced with a laugh-out-loud story of a woman singing badly into one of their in-monitor crowd microphones that only the band could hear, and left them looking at each other, to see who was out of tune.
‘Ice Cream Van’ started solemnly with Rab Allan taking the organ to accompany his cousin’s voice, then the song culminating in a huge sound of crashing percussion. ‘Go Square Go’ ended the main set, with the audience chanting the pounding, “here we, here we, here we f**king go!” chorus, some pogoing in place.
The encore started quietly, with Allan pointing out a crowd member who had attended every show on the tour thus far, then went into the touching and elegant ‘A Snowflake Fell (And it Felt Like a Kiss)’, which the crowd requester had mentioned was her wedding song.
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Glasvegas is still a force of sound still worth reckoning
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The brief U.S. tour ends this week, with a few West Coast dates, and a rare U.S. TV appearance tomorrow night on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson…who happens to also be a fellow Glaswegian.
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Glasvegas at 7th St Entry, Minneapolis (25 Feb 2014) |
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