Day three, and back to what is a slightly muddy Glasgow Green after last night’s rain, but really no big deal) on the main stage was Manchester’s Pale Waves, a slightly gothy looking four-piece who actually play catchy pop songs with the occasional crunching riff.
There was a slight air of the Shirley Manson as lead singer Heather paced the stage like a tartan-clad femme fatale, her mini-kilt ridiculously mini… She belted out songs like ‘Lies’ while the other three did their thing – they are becoming almost mainstream but certainly attract quite an alternative but younger audience – and the various topics of rebellion, self-identity and gender politics, the fear etc, all have a wider appeal. BM did not see the whole set but it was rather nice that some of the band at least hung about to watch more minor acts on The River Stage and BM had a nice wee chat with Heather, as one does…
Next the King Tut’s Stage, for three-piece girl group Dream Wife from Brighton/London who have been on the live circuit for a couple of years, including several visits to Scotland – the power three-piece have a high voltage schtick and a playful take on pop/punk – songs like ‘Don’t Date (A Musician)’ is full of scenester bitchery – “they’ll think you’re competition”. With a high-kicking bass player, a string-shredding guitarist and a presumably hired hand guy at the back bashing the skins, the lead singer is free to give her unhinged proto Harley Quinn persona free reign on tracks like ‘Social Lubrication’ – it’s quite a lot of fun, cathartic and theatrical – but there was more that BM wanted to check out…
Nieve Ella appeared on The River Stage, a rather interesting four-piece playing pop/rock from London with a slightly Americana tinge…they rocked out for sure, and engaged the audience with enthusiasm – tracks like ‘His Sofa’ sounded very promising and they built up a good rapport with the again mainly young female audience.
The River Stage also had the slightly inexplicably-named American trio Tommy Lefron – they were nice enough but slightly generic, although you can’t say that DF hasn’t booked pretty much every genre of music and hunted high and low for touring bands who are willing to consider a stopover in Glasgow in their schedules – again with the right song this two girls at the front combo could be huge – they have the voices, the harmonies and the look – today they played to really not that many people but next year, who knows?
Bob Vylan appeared on the KT Stage, the London-based two-piece in matching kilts – their brutal RATM assault was one of the loudest noises of the entire weekend, rapping over live drums with a sampled guitar/bass racket as a backing. It was established early on that band and crowd were going to get, bonding over shared hatred of The Tories and some sympathy by the band for oppressed nations everywhere. There really wasn’t much point in the BBC filming this for transmission because pretty much every song was laced with expletives by both band and crowd (“fuck the Tories” was chanted many times at various points over the weekend until it because almost the default noise between songs).
Paris Paloma appeared to be a sub for Andrew Cushin (me neither) on The River Stage and gave the very appreciate audience (including quite a few who knew the songs) a great set of acoustic numbers starting with Yeti, and including previous releases Fruits and the brutal ex-boyfriend diss-off Labour. Several songs referenced English folk music and village life, lending a slightly bucolic air to proceedings which was ironic given the urban backdrop of the distillery and the flats. Catchy songs, a slightly Amy MacDonald-esque lilt to a couple of the tracks, PP chatted to the audience like a natural
Lastly for BM, Uninvited played on The River Stage – the Glasgow-based four-piece who appear to be growing with every gig, and as an aside it was great to see members of several earlier bands stick around to watch them. The first track was built on a presumably intentional Pixies riff, while second track ‘Holly’ was more original, though sounding a wee bit like Skunk Anansie. A four-piece girl band with at least two lead vocalists and a lot of guitar sound, further tracks like ‘Portrait of a Girl’ and ‘Here’s Looking At You…’ sounded very promising.
Always best to end on something new rather than something old, so BM at this point left, leaving the joys of The 1975 to those who appear to “get” them – unfortunately this reviewer really still doesn’t despite a few attempts…
Also just realised that the majority of the acts reviewed today were either partly or wholly female – so maybe some progress for DF on those embarrassingly male-dominated festival lineups…
