There have been a few instore performances at Glasgow’s third newest record emporium (Assai being newest, then Blitzkreig, good lord they are proliferating!) but this was one of the best to date.
The Filthy Tongues need no introduction to many and BM has reviewed their work many times but let us just say they are a well-established beat combo of three core members, often swelling to more for live gigs, who are now on their third album proper. Hailing generally from Scotland’s Lothians area, some of them are original members of 80s beat combo Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, who have had a somewhat unexpected revival these past few years.
Last Night from Glasgow came to TFT’s rescue last year when a “vinyl broker” let them down both physically and financially over the release of the recent record ‘In These Dark Places’. The Ian Smith-founded collective label not only fronted the money, they also found an alternative manufacturer who was able to do the business in time for the first couple of live album launches back in January. Lead Filthy Martin Metcalfe made it very clear this afternoon that the band are forever grateful so the live in-store was part of returning the favour, along with the chance to flog a few more albums (“we’ll sign anything, even other people’s records…!”).
Appearing as the usual live five-piece (Metcalfe on lead vocals/guitar, Wilson on bass/backing vocals, Kelly on drums, Alex on further guitar and Rasool on percussion) TFT twisted their way through a short but varied set comprising tracks old and new. The PA and amplification was just right, loud but not distorted or enough to cause complaints from the neighbours (and there are a few!) and there was just enough space for the band to shoehorn themselves into one end of a shop packed with shelves and counters of vinyl (mainly!).
The set started with traditional opener “Nae Tongues” and other “early” (GMM) track ‘Crew Cut’, both of which showed off TFT’s muscular and tight playing, but then took an unusual turn with first album deep cut ‘Kingdom of Ice’. We also got the title track from the current record, sounding as darkly gothic as it could do at 4 in the afternoon in the middle of a record shop, and a ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ highlight ‘Holy Brothers’, which ended in a great extended chorus.
Last track (along with Martin’s quip about their disdain for customised masks leading to TFT producing their own mask merch, capitalism in action etc…) was the now not quite so topical ‘Gas Mask Blues’ – although fair play that this and the not played today ‘Pandemic Pete’ are still the only artistic responses to Covid19 the Scottish music scene has really offered up as yet.
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