A dreich December night in Glasgow and Man of Moon take to the stage, the kit and lights positioned to the left, and quite a big crowd already accumulating to see them. A duo, just guitar and drums, the Edinburgh boys have been making a bit of a name for themselves during 2015, with some support slots and festival dates, West End All-Dayer the first that BM had second hand reports of.
And very good they are too, quite hard to pin down the influences, it’s certainly a good sound, a lot of contrasts and some good songwriting structures – definitely ones to watch in 2016.
And on to TTS – no new material this year but a definite rise in profile due to the Robert Smith cover of ‘The Wrong Car’ and support slots announced for Chvrches and The Cure in 2016. The fact that this gig was sold out within 2 months of the tickets going on sale in the summer is quite something, the last Barrowland gig in 2012, or 2013 was it, didn’t quite sell out on the night.
A touring five-piece, this band has never been in finer form and the crowd, more mixed in age and gender than previous gigs BM thinks, went mental for this boomy, doomy, ecstatic music.
BM has reviewed this band many times for ITM (so this is a bit abbreviated) and has come up with previous superlatives (see previous ITM reviews, 5 or 6 at least) – let’s just say that this was the best yet. James’ vocal performance was the best of his that BM has yet heard, combined with the instrumental blast of the others (drums crashing throughout).
And the influences, well if pressed (because this is an original sound),:Depeche Mode, Joy Division, possibly The Cure, and Ivor Cutler – mordant and layered.
This was a long set, 17 songs BM thinks. There were some sublime moments but the main thought BM went away with was that every album they have done (4 to date) has some incredible moments and they managed to capture most of that tonight. There is a rich back-catalogue of 40 or 50 songs now.
BM is not going to comment on the content of the songs, just let’s say that Kilsyth Gothic is still doing just fine, there are dark moments, and moments of ecstasy, as the crowd sing the words back to the band on more than one occasion.
Again James thanks the audience, again we sing “The rabbit might die”, and long may it continue.
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