It’s often been said that once you get older, you only see your friends at funerals. It’s also becoming true that as you get older, you only see bands at their farewell, last ever gig.
Tonight it’s the turn of legendary The LaFontaines to give us a night to remember at SWG3 before they set off into the sunset, leaving us in tears – probably.
The support for tonight is the amazingly named Glass Cheques. The musical project of duo Jamie Keenan and Darren McCaughey, who you may know from a band called The La Fontaines. Talk about a double shift.
They start with a drum beat that makes me excited at the prospect of a ‘Walking On Sunshine’ cover, but alas. Instead, it turns into a cool, summery, indie rock number that gives us the tone of this new entity. The tracks have the familiarity of Stereophonics, Arctic Monkeys, and Oasis without ripping them off or being obvious in their influence. They hit harder than the aforementioned but there’s some lovely vocals at work in this band.
It’s a fresh indie sound too… not stuck in the era of the forefathers, but something that is sorely missing from the radio right now. I’ll never know if it was Glass Cheques that forced the decision for La Fontaines to call it a day, but it definitely makes sense if they want to run with it. The La Fontaines are dead, long live Glass Cheques.
Before we convert to the church of Glass Cheques, there’s a final fling to take care of and it’s kicking off with ‘Freed From Desire’ by Gala blasting in a glorious throwback.
If you’re close to the front you can’t ignore the number of documentary makers in the pit. Numerous video cameras that seem to be excessive for the area they’re covering from any number of angles. Who I assume is the gaffer is handing out lollypops to the girls at the front and one guy seemed to be very handy, hugging them and touching their hands. I sincerely hope they knew them.
Frontman Kerr Okan is one of the best-groomed rock stars out there and instantly causes a ruckus when he announces they’re going to play “all the songs… all of them!” and the set seems to run like the top-played on their Spotify page.
For there only being three guys on the stage (when there’s no cameramen) there’s a lot of movement and that’s all down to Okan. Even if you never got into the music of The La Fontaines, you cannot deny that this is the loss of an incredible frontman. The music is a lot more rock than rap too… and the audience are reacting appropriately. Have you noticed that since COVID, crowds at shows have been pretty dead? Not here and not tonight. This is an old school gig in a few ways, and the bouncing sea of loyal fans is one of them.
Okan’s rapping is tremendous and the melodic vocals from Jamie Keenan behind the kit rival any rockstar, although the crowd drowning him out for every line gives him a real run for his money.
We can’t go without mentioning the lights as they are easily in my top 3 of the year so far. I’m not sure why they were nowhere near as good for the support considering you’d think there would be no issue in sharing crew… but there we go.
All in, I’d say it was a mistake if you chose not to go to this show. The final fling of a Scottish institution that felt as real as it did back when they were at their peak. Slightly distracted by the overbearing documentary crew, and security at SWG3 seem to be a bit more aggressive nowadays (don’t ask…) but if you can look past the orbiting intrusions, this has been as about a good of a send off as it could have been.
Catching Light Photography
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- Uninvited - 27 April 2025
- The LaFontaines / Glass Cheques - 25 April 2025