A long night for sure, the 20th anniversary Mogwai gig (night one of two) at the Barrowlands having no less than three support acts. This did go some way to justifying what was quite a hefty £26.50 plus booking fee, a round £30 which is crossing a psychological barrier, but with support bands it was fair enough – the foodbank donation appeal was also a good touch for this gig, the whole thing feeling a bit more of an excuse for Mogwai to play rather than the other way around…
The amount of equipment on at the start was pretty impressive, the stage groaning with the appendages of various people’s future noise mayhem, one layer being removed after each band.
First up at the unholy hour (and pretty empty time) of 7pm was Pye Corner Audio (aka Martin Jenkins to his mum), erstwhile remixer of Mogwai tracks, giving us 20 minutes of slightly spooky, atmospheric and retro noises which built up into a mordant techno track, quite good really – he has released stuff on the Advisory Circle label.
He was closely followed by Prolapse, who have reformed (at Mogwai’s request apparently!) and have been touring a bit (Nottingham last night). Presumably an influence on Mogwai back at the start, they have an off-kilter and quite wonky, if endearing sound – BM remembers the name from the 90s but little else, not really on the radar at the time. Part-noise rock, part angsty pop, they sound at times like a cross between Black Flag and Pulp (are you sure Betty?). Although formed in middle Engerlund, the lead vocalist is a massive Scottish guy (Mick) who paces the stage along with his more diminutive female colleague (Linda), always on the verge of colliding. It looks like some kind of domestic stand-off and the music is equally violent. It is quite some racket but pretty effective, packing a good few numbers into their 30 minutes, while Mick looks for his Dad in the audience and blames Linda for a current eye injury, presumably during one pace of the stage too many.
Loop are also 90s noise merchants, having reformed a couple of years ago, but mainman Robert Hampson has opted to ditch all other original members for the current line-up, being joined by new personnel on drums, bass and other guitar. Now white and short of locks (as opposed to quite the opposite in the 90s) and looking like a partner in an architect firm, he is polite as he plugs in and starts 30 minutes of sheer noise squall. There are a couple of new tracks here as well but most of it comes straight from the mid-90s, Ride being the other obvious comparison as well as MBV. Perhaps Loop were neither as poppy as the former or as extreme as the latter (Betty lived through the 90s but can’t really remember) but they do sound good, and Hampson takes his leave of an appreciative audience, by now beginning to fill the room as the hour of 9.30pm, and the main act, approaches. In terms of influences BM supposes that a Sonic Youth reformation was just one step too far (well it is anyway), although they do sound like Mogwai’s biggest influence (if anyone really is) BM is not aware they Mogwai have name-checked them at any point…
The audience at this gig looked pretty mixed, probably 70% at least male, not that different from a usual Mogwai gig. The intro tape cause some smiles, being an extract of Limmy as Falconhoof – “you will go – to see Mogai” or some such banter. The band, playing with Barry Burns’ keyboards and Martin Bulloch’s drums at the back, Dominic stage centre and with Stuart B/John Cummings at either end of the front, began low key with Black Spider from the Zidane soundtrack. No big backdrop, a lot of lights and strobes though, the ‘Rave Tapes’ graphic on the bass drum replaced by something with a skull, ‘Teenage Exorcists’ meet Motorhead possibly…
After ‘Summer’ put them into second gear, things started to ramp up with ‘Jim Morrison’, then hitting further heights with ‘Stanley Kubrick’ and ‘San Pedro’. This was a career-spanning set, mainly live highlights with a few surprises. Luke Sutherland was revealed to be the man who played the quite extraordinary guitar riff on ‘Teenage Exorcists’, Stuart’s vocal very low in the mix – this is the oddest track of the lot, a New Order/mid 90s shoegaze tribute and the only track tonight with real vocals excepting Aidan Moffat’s guest spot on Young Team track ‘R U…’ should’ve been a Xmas hit and BM still reckons it might feature in ‘Les Revenants – serie deux’ at some point.
Barry on vocoder for ‘Hunted by A Freak’ proved again to be one of the most memorable Mogwai tracks and of course ‘Fear Satan’ just screamed and yelled, the guest flute player (no Lanarkshire jokes) out front of stage stalked by the threat of the last “loud bit”. The main set closed with a excoriating ‘Batcat’, just one of a number of stand-outs. The soundmix was nigh on perfect, being stretched on the numbers (like this one) where Barry emerged (always looking a bit reluctant out front) to strap on a guitar.
They encored with another low key start ‘Tracy’ (without the tape recording on the album), then ‘Remurdered’ (the only Rave Tapes track played tonight but a real stormer) before ‘My Father My King’ turned into a 20-minute feedback-fest and reminded us again (with apologies to MBV, just too painful) that nobody can do the modern rock wig-out better.
Listening to 20 years of Mogwai what can we say (and this is not the time for big time analysis, the song titles alone could however make a good semantics PHD) – the use of instrumental build-ups and sound dynamics, the minimalism and simplicity of some of the arrangements, the generous use of guests and promotion of others (Luke Sutherland being the best guest example, and Stuart promotionally suggesting that we attend the following night’s West End Festival All-Dayer where Remember Remember are playing their last gig) , the massive walls of noise they produce, then tame and control (almost) and the sheer commitment to moving things forward, album by album, over the years, now decades, and the deprecating sense of humour – they just get better and better. Happy 20th.