It’s Friday night at this fairly intimate venue (no stage, just a big room but very friendly and good soundmix) and we have the prospect of three fairly left field musical proposals.
First up are Comfort, a two-piece from Glasgow. Natalie cues the laptop with beats and other electronic sounds while Sean starts drumming. Natalie also sings, and shouts, over the top of this racket.
It’s actually very good, with some shades of Kate Tempest vs Gazelle Twin. There isn’t much (any) between-song chat but the audience of around 30 are quite into it, and the overall sound is original, abrasive and well-balanced.
They do about 6 or 7 tracks, then politely exit the stage. BM has looked them up and there’s some stuff on Bandcamp, but with a male (Sean?) on vocals from 2017, so guess they must have swapped – good call!
Next up are VIDIV – this duo have been around for a bit longer and they kick up a fair Throbbing Gristle type racket, one of them dredging grinding noise out of some electronic gear and the other shouting over it, preacher-like, about a variety of things.
Setlist was ‘Caroline Died In The Wrong Body, Murder Gang Nurture and Survival Strategy, Epidemics Ov Despair and DIY Temple Love Ritualz’ At various points yer man gets up on a chair to rant at the audience (maybe 20 or 30 at this point), quite dark stuff about family tragedies, sectarianism and death (mainly). The overall effect is a bit OTT but they are quite good, if extreme.
From New York or thereabouts, God Is My Copilot are veterans of the US indie scene of the 90s and pioneered material about gay and bisexual relationships amid jerky guitar backing.
Tonight there are original and touring members Normandy Sherwood, Craig Flanagin, Jason Blackkat, Fredril Haakem joined by local guitar hero Jer Reid (Sumshapes, Ilk and others).
The music is spiky, a bit of Gang of Four, with shifting tempos and timings, plus some eccentric riffing, while Sherwood shouts and sings over it about a range of subjects. They have not had a record out in a while and BM has no idea what the setlist spans in terms of their many previous records. Near the end there is a Fall cover (part of their usual set, ‘Totally Wired’) and we get a short encore.
The audience is enthusiastic and BM thinks the band enjoyed this sympathetic setting – and fair play to the promoters for putting this admittedly minority interest event on.