It’s the festival time of year, and although Aberdeen misses out on any major festival frolics, Interesting Music Promotions has served up two glorious back-to-back nights in The Tunnels. It feels just like a festival.
(well, the shows are part of Tigerfest – Ed)
Canadian popsters Born Ruffians open up proceedings on Thursday with a performance that, if forced to sum up in one word, I could only describe as ‘blistering’. Luckily, I’m not forced to do so. They entice and they invite – these guys know how to write fantastically off-kilter pop hooks, and by God have they nailed the ability to vocally harmonize. Some suggest that front man Luke LaLonde shares more than just a Christian name with The Kooks front man, and yes – I can hear a similarity in the vocal delivery, however The Kooks don’t harmonize like this! Oh, and The Kooks are rubbish. Born Ruffians are not.
Fellow Canadians Caribou take the stage to rapturous applause. There’s not much room to breathe on the dance floor – but who needs to breathe when Caribou are playing live music before you? Their set is a psychedelic treat, with the combination of trippy visuals and the mesmerising collection of spaced-out rhythmic pop songs working the packed dance floor into a head-nodding frenzy. This is sheer gravitas. They effortlessly shift between material from 2005’s ‘The Milk of Human Kindness’, with ‘Hello Hammerheads’ being a particular stand out track, and 2007’s ‘Andorra’. And what is it about two drumkits in a live set up that is just so brilliant? When the drums double up, my skeleton shakes and my heart pounds in time with the rhythms. This is bloody good music.
Friday is a considerably more low-key affair – this is evident immediately upon entering the venue – tables and chairs are set up on the floor area, with each table containing a lit candle in an empty wine bottle. This is nice. It sets up a beautiful ambience, and the music hasn’t even started! First up is Leeds duo Glissando. All they needed to do was walk on stage and they had the crowd’s undivided attention. Opening track ‘With a Kiss and a Tear’ is a melancholic masterpiece, with Richard Knox’s bowed guitar providing a beautiful pedestal upon which Elly May Irving climbs and reveals her devastatingly poignant, yet delicate soul. Set closer ‘Floods’ underlines why Glissando should never stop creating music – it has absolute and genuine substance. I call for a rethink on the name: try Blissando.
Next up are Glaswegian three-piece Remember Remember. Having signed to Mogwai’s imprint, Rock Action, it was all too easy to know what to expect. But I didn’t know what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect cleverly constructed rhythmic patterns looped over the top of eachother with such household instruments as a cigarette lighter, a stapler, and a pair of scissors. But that’s what I got and, at times, it was astonishingly effective. I also didn’t expect violin and saxophone accompaniment. But what I didn’t expect the most was for all of this to work in a live environment. But it did. The build up to the crescendo on ‘Fountain Mountain’ was particularly memorable. This experience is something I will definitely not Forget Forget.
At this point, the crowd is like putty in the hands of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie. The evening has been set up for Stars of the Lid to perfection, and the sense of anticipation as they take to the stage could be sliced with a knife. The crowd are instantly pushed back into their chairs by the sheer wash of glacial serenity. The candles flicker as the bows slide over the strings, and the inertly morphing visuals give the venue a sense of weightlessness. It’s as if the venue has transmogrified into a space vessel and is floating through deep space. Probably in an entirely different galaxy. For ninety minutes, we are all astronauts.
Okay, so Interesting Music Promotions don’t do festivals. But if they did, it’d probably be the best in the world.