Glassjaw
Glasgow QMU (Tuesday 26th January)
Despite having only released two full length studio albums during the course of their ten years together, Glassjaw are widely regarded as one of, if not the most, highly influential post-hardcore bands on the music scene.
Tonight the band play Glasgow’s QMU, and after an impressive introduction by support act Pulled Apart By Horses, Glassjaw take to a Scottish stage for the first time in a long time.
Opening with ‘Tip Your Bartender’ from 2002’s Worship and Tribute their dedicated following of fans go crazy for them. The sound initially isn’t too great, but the band pull up the slack by debuting new material which is to appear on their next long-awaited studio album. This includes ‘(You Think You’re) Fucking John Lennon’ (terrible name but not actually a bad song) and ‘All Good Junkies Go To Heaven’, and while it is exciting to hear new stuff the crowd here are hankering for their old favourites.
About half way through we are treated to ‘Ape Dos Mil’ which sounds amazing live, with singer Daryl Palumbo giving it his all, and fans make their money back on this performance alone. Palumbo then ruins it a bit by talking over the microphone about something or other, we can’t really tell what, before playing more songs from Worship and Tribute, including ‘The Gillette Cavalcade of Sport’ and ‘Pink Roses’.
Given that they are performing so much new material, it seems strange that they should miss out ‘Cosmopolitan Blood Loss’, one of their most famous singles, and a song that the crowd have been chanting for since the middle of the set. Glassjaw however, ignore the request, instead opting for ‘El Mark’ before finally playing just three songs from debut album Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence.
After seventy five minutes of giving it their all, Glassjaw close with ‘Babe’, two minutes of sheer aggression and rage before thanking us and gracefully leaving the stage, and the crowd go home with smiles on their faces.
Mairi Griffin
