The Hours bounce onto the stage and straight into ‘Narcissus Road’ from their début album of the same name. Lead singer Antony Genn rolls out the usual banter about Glasgow having the best crowds but he’s so passionate that I believe him!
After new song ‘These Days’ we hear ‘Back When You Were Good’, which Ant informs us was written about a disastrous relationship with a woman, and hey, this next song is about the same one. But apparently she’s not getting a third.
The band have fleshed out since their previous tour, now a five piece instead of three, and the music is bigger, chunkier than before. More effects pedals and extra drums, and it all translates into a very well rounded, full sound. Next we have ‘Ali in the Jungle, which goes down extremely well with the adoring audience. Martin Slattery is up from his piano for a bit to play his melodica. Ant gets the crowd ready for new single ‘Big Black Hole’ by teaching us the bits we should be clapping along to, and gets a good response.
He tells us about how, when growing up he always wanted to be a musician but everyone scoffed at the idea. He says fuck the lot of them, he grew up and got to work with his idol, Joe Strummer. Nice introduction to ‘People Say’, which is followed by ‘Murder or Suicide’. Ant is getting really animated, hitting himself and his mic stand with a drumstick, then drumming on the outside of the kit, bringing the song to a climactic ending.
We have less than a minute’s wait for the encore, and Ant indulges in some conversation with the crowd. Some guy up the back shouts out “play a song for the MPs!” to which Ant replies “well, it’ll be a short fucking song then! I’ll play a song for you guys instead!” The band end the night with the anthemic ‘Love You More’ which gets the loudest applause yet. Look out for the Hours supporting Kasabian in the autumn.