Originally planned for Friday 24th to coincide with the official release date, this album launch was hastily rescheduled after “Son of Bawbag” caused chaos across the land and closed almost everything. Fair play to the band, the venue and the promoters Monorail for calling the gig off early and a prompt reschedule.
In the smallest Glasgow venue Mogwai have played in a while (“we’ve actually never played it” confirmed frontman Stuart Braithwaite later, mentioning the fact they’d been regular punters here in their teens), the prospect of the new album in full and their first live gig in six months made this a much-anticipated gig, and it did not disappoint.
The four core members and live guitarist/keyboard player Alex trooped onstage around 8.15pm and did exactly what they said they would do – ‘The Bad Fire’, all 10 tracks, in sequence. The soundmix was great, the new songs varied and resonant, a couple with vocals from Stuart, and some vocoder from Barry. Highlights for this reviewer were probably ‘Lion Rumpus’ and opener ‘God Gets You Back’ but it all sounded great, albeit a bit different live to the studio versions.
After a good hour of the new material the band went off briefly before coming back on for “a few more songs” as Stuart suggested. He said they hadn’t really discussed what else they were going to play but they must have at least rehearsed them, as they haven’t been regulars in the recent sets.
The four played reminded us of what a rich, varied and incredible back catalogue Mogwai have to draw on – first off was the seldom played and relatively low-key ‘May Nothing But Happiness…’ then they ramped things up with ‘Coolverine’, a great track but again not in recent setlists – with its rich main piano theme it probably sounded best of all tonight, but after a ripping ‘Friend Of The Night’ we got closer ‘Christmas Steps’, which reminded us of what a furious racket Mogwai can make if they so choose – so 30 plus years on and counting, they are still making compelling, unique music and giving great shows… should we be surprised? – probably not!
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