Chvrches / The Twilight Sad / Shura

This was a triumph in several ways. The headliners’ first Glasgow show since 2014 and they went for the big one. TTS’s biggest indoor stage yet with an open invitation from Chvrches to do their thing – to the max.

SHURA

Shura opened proceedings at an early 7.15pm, relative unknowns here in Glasgow but put in a credible shift. A female singer/songwriter with some Scandi-influences (BM still hankering for a Fever Ray comeback…) and backed by a full band. Good voice, good hooks, and enough quirks to be interesting over five or so songs – keep on with it dear and something good might well happen (deliberate Kate Bush reference, just checking you are still awake after 2 paras…), and try KTWWH next time so us critiques people can get more of your measure – we will be kind, promise…

To be fair to the headliners BM was really here to see TTS, regular readers (no, come back… sir) will have got, or gotten, is that a hippism (?) (no just the evolution of language, etymologists reply on a postcard, BM likes a broad chvrch) fed up about BM waxing her parts lyrical about this combo, they just get better every single year, since 2007 or so… and the campaign for James Graham as the next James Bond starts here…

BM had her willing assistante tonight, there to take pix and be embarrassed when voice was lost screaming (there were some other TTS diehards there too, but not enough, filled the Barras in December but too hip to show your beards here, oh come on…) and he moved away (“not with this person…”) when the need to pogo came upon some of us (just BM really, in a vast audience, by now in the thousands, many of them TTS virgins, unbelievably… BM makes the offer to anyone, to do that deed, anyway, am digressing, but do have a bad reputation to keep up).

For the first time, but not the last time, the spector, or sceptre, if you will, of twin BM godheads Depeche and Joy Division/New Order, hung heavy over this vast space… no bad thing at all, if any band can channel either or both they are onto a winner, both for BM and commercially as well; there appear to be enough Gen X/Gen Y/Gen WTF Yanks happy to shell out for the “English Eccentrics”, from DM in Pasadena to B&S@Hollywood Bowl, who would have thunk it (will get back to Shirley M in a minute).

NOTEBOOKS OUT, PLAGIARISTS…

MERE PSEUD MAG ED…

(Is BM violating herself doing this “mainstream” stuff, answers scrawled on the letters page of a used fanzine from 1981…)

TTS

TTS played, we think, 7 songs (and setlistfm is WRONG, can’t be bothered to correct it, actually BM’s people have now submitted an update, with a stern warning to previous “curator” to do their (amateur) job better), including the outstanding ‘I Became A Prostitute’ (BM in another life…)… but seriously, this band are on a massive roll, a bridie even, in a more controlled way than their usual headline shows. JG has never sounded better, and yes James, BM was that idiot who pointed down your every line, every spat epithet of the set… You were again, and as usual, the most charismatic singer in the whole of the lane (where did that come from, a lyric maybe? And not related to “back alleys” either), bar none, just dinnae let it get to yer head, son…

BM is sure that they played, latterly, ‘It Never Was The Same’, distinctly remember yelling “You didn’t have to kill them all” back at James, the firm foundations of a good Saturday night out in Glasgow, well in BM’s pocketbook, and handbag, anyway. And also remember yelling “The frightened rarebit must die” (sic, ok a bit wrong) so that would be seven songs in all, ending with ‘And It Would Darken The Memory’. Yep, they put the boot in right enough, but not a foot wrong – not much chat, as befits a support, one quip from JG (which BM has forgotten!), thanking the headliners for the chance (and yes we are all aware of the connections between these acts, just good to see people helping each other to rise above, no really). The feedback maelstrom was relatively tempered tonight, but it was still there, respect to all 5 guys onstage, giving the significant pummelling to a relatively virgin audience without completely ripping the %%rse out of them, oh dear that sounds a bit wrong…

BM could go on, and at great length… just embrace this band, all of them, would hope they win many converts, and introverts, and other… verts tonight, it is a broad Chvrch here at the Spaceship…

There were no G&R intros (as threatened online, just a couple of grins), just a solid declaration of intent by the best band currently operating in Scotland, and maybe next time they will be the headliners, mucho respect to their erstwhile colleagues the newly elevated Chvrches for doing them this huge favour.

CHVRCHES

And so to the headliners: BM “IS” a fan, before anyone says otherwise. Bands can be successful and still retain their appeal, and this is one of them. Since seeing them live at T2014 where they appeared in the KTWWH tent (ibid BM review in the anals, sorry annals, of ITM back pages) BM has mused on whether they really could cut it in a performance situation. They needed some extra things, and they have gone and done their homework and got them WELL SORTED OUT(!), as follows:

– far more muscular live sound, turning the synths and percussion up to 11
– using live bass/geetar where possible with the constructs of the songs
– putting something in Lauren’s drink (only kidding) so she bounces around the stage and cannae stop talking
– letting The Doc take vocals on a couple of things to broaden the variety and add more sonic dimensions, and he is good at it as well, hidden depths etc.

Not exactly what BM was thinking in 2014 but something like it, also:

– release another album of sythpop mastery that goes around the world, even selling some units in this music industry wasteland, well michty me…

This is a now a precision-tooled, stadium-mounting monster, but in a good way. Ms Mayberry was in excellent voice, there are no big video screens so the focus is on the stage, and the crowd by this time must be around 80-90% capacity, with a couple of curtained off sections so by BM’s reckoning that must be around 6-7000 skulls who paid for this, not a bad result….

‘Bury It’ was probably the apex of this show – the whole place screaming, BM with what was left of “The Voice” – outstanding moments, to savour…

The computers did their job, but with humanity and humility, and sometimes very high BPM, ravey Davy alert, again in a good way – it takes an art to do all this, mark BM’s words people.

Closer ‘The Mother We Share’ reminded just how far this lot have come, oh good lord, there were even some of that “Music for People who don’t really like music” tribe in there tonight, could Chvrches become the next Oasis, kind of hope not – but with songs as insanely catchy well… you really never know…

They have had an mad touring schedule and in fact by now will have socked to most of Deutschland – will just say one more thing: no two, actually…

1. Shirley Manson: people can learn from other people’s mistakes…
2. Taylor Swift: referred to onstage tonight, interesting…

The spectre of the Mode still hung over as we walked out of the hall to the sounds of ‘All I Ever Wanted’ into a drizzled but transformed Saturday night on the Clydeside…

Thank you everyone, this was truly memorable…and still raining in Raintown, well WTF did you expect?