This was one of three shows, all sold out, that the Rabbits had booked for December after a fairly intensive year touring the newish album ‘Portrait of a Panic Attack’ around the US, Europe and BM thinks at least two Scottish shows, a ‘secret’ one at The Art School and a support for Biffy at Bellahouston. So having not done a proper headlining show in Glasgow for a while this was quite a hotly anticipated run, preceded by a show in Inverness last week. One attractive aspect of these shows also was that FR took the opportunity to book a variety of support acts, with regular UK support for the tour Paws joined by a different opening act each of the three nights.
So first up, in front of a strangely sparse crowd just before 7.30 were Vital Idles, a Glasgow-based four-piece. A bit nervous, and not helped by what looked like a bust drum after the first two tracks (it was Paws’ drumkit as well!) they gave us five or six slightly twisted, punky slices of guitar-driven action. Vocalist Jessica’s notes are a bit askew, in a deliberate way, a bit Poly Styrene with shades of obtuseness, reminds BM of some of the Sarah Records bands. Also can’t help noticing they pay no particular mind to contemporary sartorial trends, looking almost deliberately ‘Anti-fashion’ and therefore rather timeless instead (says itm’s fashion editor!). Their strongest track is probably the new single ‘My Sentiments’ which ends with a downright sarcastic series of ‘thanks for coming’ phrases and other platitudes, quite jarring in a live setting as the audience wonders if that is it, and were they really so glad? Other songs appear to be a mixture of wistfulness laced with insinuating innuendo, a winning combination for BM anyway! Just what were the protagonists doing ‘In the Garden’, there are shades of the Artery classic ‘In the Garden’… A combo to watch out for and far-sighted of FR to pick them!
Paws are a more established act, having headlined at Stereo and several other Scottish venues, this power three piece have put out several albums, most recent one ‘No Grace’ having Mike Hoppus, who has produced Blink 182 among others, at the controls – interesting. Onstage they exude pure energy, and a bit like Nirvana at the time this is a marriage of pop punk and rockist/metalist catchiness and indie DIY sensibilities, a tricky combination as it can alienate or unite different groups of fans. This is done tonight with panache, charisma and humour. Core members Philip and Josh are boosted by a bass guitarist (cool notes and moves but can’t see his name anywhere, sorry) and the sound is punchy, roaring and bowls along at a fair lick, punctuated by pauses and changes of pace. Josh’s drumming in particular is incredible (although there was something about the sticks which was distracting him, quite funny to watch him rejecting one after another), the vocals quite high in the mix for a band of this kind and the bass also high in the mix in fact everything sounded high in the mix. The five or six songs played were mainly from the new album but BM thinks at least one or more older songs. They appear to have got on pretty well with the Frabbits as somewhat unexpectedly Scott Hutchison appeared stage right to take vocals on the second last track, to huge cheers, grins and later handshakes etc from the band.
By this time the place had filled up to almost capacity (less than back in the day due to fire limit being lowered in recent years). BM is afraid to say that although nothing was actually dangerous then 2016 is another year where absolutely nothing has been spent by the owners in upgrading the interior and facilities in this place. Presumably they are going for the ‘authentic wreck’ look however BM hopes that will not end up as the ‘authentic, closed’ look – anyway…
The Frabbits took a while to come on (ok so the running order did say 9.15pm but that was quite a while after Paws ended). There was plenty of time to contemplate the stage setup, the most unusual thing being that there was only one amp onstage at the back (ie all the amps the support bands used had been taken off the stage). Can’t say that BM had noticed this before with the Frabbits, may be a new or not so new thing, but they must plug the sound straight into the PA (help me out here, any tech guys reading this! It certainly made for a very raw sound, and quite risky as presumably any tuning issues or bum notes go straight full into the mix, like riding bareback (other analogies are available). The other observation is that there are three keyboards, ie apart from lead vocalist Scott and drummer brother Grant, all three other members are multi-instrumentalists doubling from guitar or bass to keyboards in different songs.
Arriving to a heroes’ welcome they went straight into the staccatto angst of ‘Get out’, one of the strongest of the new songs from the current album (punchline here is that you may grow up, get a beard, be a man etc but these pesky crushes, or full-blown lurvve feelings can strike at any random moment – just remember boys that BM is a shoulder, and some other appendages, to cry on, and give some much-needed relief…) (sorry about that)
From there on they kept up the momentum with a set leaning quite heavily on this record and also on second album ‘Midnight Organ Fight’, with nothing from ‘Sing the Greys’ at all (BM understands this is for various reasons but there is enough good material without it). Between songs the crowd clapped until Scott had to tell them to calm down, with ‘Life in Colour’ (‘maybe our only optimistic song’) and ‘The Modern Leper’ (‘this is for all of you, who made this happen’) getting a jumping reception especially. The more downbeat (and confessional sounding) ‘I Wish I Was Sober’ was also received well and the band put everything into song after song, new mainly, with ‘Blood Under the Bridge’ and ‘Woke up Hurting’ emerging as possible new Frabbit classics.
‘Floating in the Forth’ got a fairly rare live outing before the audience went mental to ‘Get Old Fashioned’ which shows off the folkier side to the Frabbits. Listening to the set BM was thinking a bit about Arcade Fire (a track played on the PA before things started, ‘Power Out’ I think) and how the explosive drums are such a key aspect of both bands, plus something else like a pop sensibility combined with a way of expressing frustration, lust and love in different measures – an interesting comparison to ponder c – well it the sort of thing that springs to mind for us meta-reviewers, when we get cerebral, or have a few pints of Tennants.
Anyway ‘Lump Street’, another standout track from ‘Painting…’, was emotive (SHutch has not lost any of the direct honesty that is his trademark) and synth-heavy, and bass-heavy, a real cathartic going-over, not a pretty scenario but all the better for it.
BM missed the first encore almost entirely due to having to go downstairs into the smoking area for an update on a lost hamster (not making this up, wish I was, no fucking sign of the wee bastard, miss him terribly though, he has not showed up since and BM towers is all the poorer for his wee furry face and hanging gonads, oh dear…)
‘Death Dream’ and ‘The Woodpile’ followed the two acoustic numbers, (‘Poke’ and ‘Backwards Walk’, so BM was told), then ‘The Loneliness and the Scream’ , which turned into a real anthemic singalong (Paws also got back onstage for this one to give it some more), the ‘wah hao hao’ thing being belted out by the audience throughout, afterwards and then as we went down the steps after the gig, BM belted in the Gallowgate, could still hear it as we walked past the bloody Tron, this is a measure of this band’s reach, an instant hymn.
The final encore was a very plangent version of ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, a song which transcends time, the alter-ego of so many Arab Strap songs, BM is not going to repeat the lyrics here but seconds the emotion, and the poetry, this is poetry set to a crushing guitar/bass/drums wig-out, and is just better than they have ever played it, and to have near on 2000 mainly drunk people baying out a paean refrain about choosing your sexual partners with respect and not randomly is just a great achievement – we are now done here, a long and enjoyable night – we break free of the Barras as it is pre xmas mad Saturday, plenty of holes left to be filled (not by BM obviously, she keeps hers for special occasions), but none better than by the Frabbits, this was epically good and long may this kind of thing keep happening…