On the kind a spring evening when it was just about possible to have an alfresco drink in the Allison Arms opposite while waiting for the venue’s shutters to be raised (they were albeit 45 mins later than advertised, but never mind), a treble-bill promoted by 432 was on the cards in South Glasgow. BM has bored on about the fact there are several decent venues here in an area where before a few years ago you really had to hit the city centre for a gig, so another gig in this basement (with a decent sound-system mind) was all to the good.
As the venue filled up, five-piece Glasgow combo Velvets got things started. BM has seen them before and again they played a very interesting set – good musicians for relative youngsters.
Coming across like a combination of Suede, Hot Chip, The Smiths (the main singer Aidan even quoted from ‘The Headmaster Ritual’ at one point), they had an interesting keyboard wash inbetween tracks and some instrument-swapping.
The main bassist Christopher (who also did a couple of vocals) played some funky lines, while the guitarist Scott went ‘taps aff’ by the last couple of numbers and was definitely an aspiring Angus Young-esque thrasher.
The last couple of tracks, ‘Black and Blue’ and ‘Self-Help’ were familiar to BM and can’t help thinking this lot are more than the sum of their slightly disparate parts and deserve a break, but no sign of radio-play or other external interest as yet.
Scrounge, a two-piece guitar/vocals (Lucy) plus drums (Luke) had driven all the way from quite far down south, but seemed to relish the prospect of this now quite filled up space for their songs of angst and rebellion.
Starting with the really rather amazing ‘This Summer’s Been Lethal’, they seemed to channel a slightly Kae Tempest vs Slits vibe, with some great guitar lines, vocals, and pummelling drums.
Further tracks such as ‘Hit’ and closer (‘Badoom’, with some audience participation) widened the musical palette and form some of an album release entitled ‘Sugar, Daddy’. BM was not previously familiar but they certainly made an impression.
Headliners Benefits came with some previous – the Hug and Pint gig had been something of a maelstrom according to BM’s sources, so this somewhat bigger event, coinciding with the release of the debut album ‘Nails’ promised much. A somewhat eccentric setup of one lead vocal mike, two sets and banked keyboards/pedals/modular sound machines etc and a drumkit at the back heralded their appearance around 945pm or so, and the place was pretty busy by then.
The core of the band hails from Middlesborough, Teeside, but BM had completely forgotten the drumming legend Cat Myers (Honeyblood, Mogwai, Texas ffs…) was playing with them on this tour – have to say she was great but the ‘local hero’ legend was certainly not played up to and she kept a low profile afterwards as well. Headed by singer/poet/ranter Kingsley Hall, the band ploughed their way through the majority of the debut album with an intensity that at times became almost too much.
Starting with the jagged shards of electronic feedback that is ‘Marlboro Hundreds’, the shouting belied the singer’s actually quite soft Teeside accent. The majority of the tracks, some spoken, centred around national identity, skewering the ‘British Bulldog’ jingoism which Brexit seemed to encourage, along with casual racism and a rosy-tinted view of past glories.
The music veered from almost straight-edge Rollins-esque shouting and percussion (‘Empire’) to more trip-hop influenced grooves (‘Shit Britain’) The lyrics took aim at a number of further targets – sponsored football shirts, the myth of the undeserving poor, flag-waving of all kinds. There was a lot of anger, some absorbed by the crowd, although the targets were generally English nationalism rather than anything else – what came across as much as anything was human empathy, underneath all the rage and the washes of aberrant white noise.
Benefits are a visceral experience, and then some – but the rabble-rousing is done with care and is targeted and those who (in their eyes) warrant it. Compelling, with a degree of humour as well, and altogether a stirring night out in south Glasgow…