Another great gig at Mono, with the sound levels perfect for the size of the venue and the crowd (pretty much sold out).
After a bit of a wait outside, local combo Hairband kicked things off with a spiky but melodic set. BM saw this lot about 6 months ago and they are developing more edge, with some great guitar playing, riffing off each other… an all-girl affair, they played several track from last year’s EP including ‘Bee’and ‘Bubble Sword’. BM looks forward to new material from Hairband – they have a certain something in the guitars and vocals that can’t quite be pinned down, but BM likes it!
After a late start the main came on at the advertised time of around 9.15, and what a glorious noise they made. The Raincoats were most active in the late 70s, part of a female postpunk wave that included The Slits and The Au Pairs. BM is genuinely (no, really) too young to have been allowed out to their shows back then but the band have reformed for a few gigs from the 90s onwards. Glasgow is lucky to have been included on this short tour and it looks like it is mainly due to the Monorail connection, so respect due to Stephen and the rest, it was well worth it!
The band has two original members, the original core Gina Birch (bass/vocals) and Anna De Silva (guitar/vocals). Supplemented by a great drummer and fiddle player tonight they stormed through pretty much all of their debut album, ten songs in all. The crowd loved it, the songs sounded great and there were some reminders of the uniqueness of this band, original members now quite older (aren’t we all?). Gina and Anna shared lead vocals on the tracks, as BM thinks they did on the original material, both giving their all tonight.
The ’70s was not a decade that took women with opinions seriously but The Raincoats railed against this, and brought feminists politics, sexual politics and personal politics into the faces of people just trying to even with the energy of punk, for starters.
Forget the context however, these songs are just great, with blinding bass, rasping guitar and although not always polished, a great boot in the balls to the music establishment at the time. Their version of the Kinks’ ‘Lola’ is a bit of a revelation because it reverses the sexual tropes of an already sexually confused song – a brilliant cover!
After the rest of the debut album we got a few more choice cuts from the back catalogue, including ‘Feminist’ , ‘Shouting Out Loud’ and ‘No-One’s Little Girl’ before the band said goodnight and went into the crowd for hugs, autographs and chats with people, some of whom had come quite a long way for this….
BM salutes The Raincoats, long may they rain!