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Live Review: Loyle Carner - O2 ABC, Glasgow, 28 Septmeber 2017

29/9/2017

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The enormous ‘Carner’ #7 football shirt hanging at the back of the stage during Loyle Carner’s gig at the O2 ABC in Glasgow seemed the perfect symbol for what the South London rapper represents.

His stage name Loyle Carner is a spoonerism of his double-barreled surname Coyle-Larner, and the importance of family is a theme that runs through and defines his Mercury Award-nominated debut album ‘Yesterday’s Gone’. The album ends with a beautiful poem from his mother about Loyle’s upbringing followed by a final song from his late father.

This intimate, genuine feel of the record is what makes Carner’s work so accessible, and what has allowed his fans to connect so closely to his work. His lyrics are honest. They’re personal. But they’re a whole lot of fun as well. There’s nothing sombre about listening to Carner’s beats, put out on top of a mixture of charging guitar riffs, stripped back keys and more traditional hip-hop backbeats.
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Loyle manages to translate all of this to the live stage remarkably well. The stage is set up to look like a living room. That giant football shirt looks out over the whole thing, and the stories Carner tells between songs of how he wrote his material are actually quite humbling at times.

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Live Review: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The SSE Hydro, Glasgow, 27 September 2017

28/9/2017

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To even call Nick Cave and The Bad Seed’s concert at the SSE Hydro a concert seems blasphemous.

What unfolded at the Glasgow arena was more like something between noir musical theatre and a religious event; one man patrolling the edge of the huge Hydro stage in front of nearly 10,000 people, the audience hanging on his every roar, word and whisper as he, quite literally, got right in their faces, held their hands, stood on their shoulders and spent almost as much time in amongst them as he did on the stage.

At any given moment the huge pop-up screens would be showing black-and-white live close ups of Cave bellowing from the stage in his classic black suit, with half-unbuttoned white shirt and golden chain hanging off him. He’d be reaching into the crowd and receiving an endless wave of faceless arms and a stampede in return.

Any given song from the setlist was capable of putting you through more emotions than you can count on two hands. It was mesmerising.

Nick Cave is renowned for his rock and roll persona of course - his no holds barred, no fucks given approach to every aspect of music making, from his often remarkably unique (and open resentment of giving) media interviews to the deeply metaphorical, surreal nature of his lyrics and stories. And he carries this attitude right through to his live performances - only giving brief reminders that he is indeed just a human being with the occasional comic aside, laughing “this is sexual harassment in the workplace” after fans were initially a little too reluctant to let him return to the stage, for example.

A concern of going to see Cave live for the first time is commonly a fear that his show might be, for lack of a better phrase, slightly miserable. Especially now. His last album Skeleton Tree was written after the tragic death of his son after all. We’re sure we’ve aptly assured you at this point, however, that this could not be further from the truth.

Nick Cave lives for the stage. He’s as much a performer as he is a singer and songwriter, and that’s saying a lot. We’d struggle to name a better song writer out there past or present, someone who is as good at building worlds and characters and framing images as the Australian. And having now seen him live, we’d struggle to name a better performer too.

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Live Review: Glass Animals - Electric Fields Festival, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, 2 September 2017

4/9/2017

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You see a lot of strange things at music festivals. A glass of urine travelling over the heads of the crowd is, tragically, not an unfamiliar site these days (though we’re glad to say we saw no such thing across the weekend at Electric Fields in Drumlanrig Castle).

One thing we’ve not seen before, however, is a festival-goer clambering over rows of other revellers to shout in the ear of another: “Mate! Can I hold your pineapple for a second?”

And the answer coming back: “Okay. But only if you give it back after.”

It seems this sequence of events is fairly standard practise at a Glass Animals gig, however.

The English indie-pop quartet arrived on the Electric Fields main stage with a giant, golden pineapple spinning behind them at the back of their stage. The crowd before them, equally bizarrely, was filled with audience members holding pineapples up to frontman Dave Bayley like they were catholic parents trying to get a blessing for their child from the Pope.

Glass Animals had a smaller, real-life pineapple sitting on one of their amplifiers, just below their stunning, giant shrine-apple in centre stage. There were blow-up Pineapples in the crowd too. And electronic pineapples. One guy even had a pineapple hat on.

Safe to say that Glass Animals were one of the most hotly anticipated acts of the festival, then. And that they have a very loyal cult following.

The fandom over the exotic fruit comes from a lyric in the band’s hit single ‘Pork Soda’ which reads “pineapples are in my head”. Glass Animals closed out their set at Electric Fields with the same song, no doubt answering a lot of questions for those who were previously unfamiliar with the group in the process.

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Live Review: Kate Tempest - Electric Fields Festival, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, 1 September 2017

4/9/2017

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It’s no coincidence that anytime Kate Tempest plays a music festival she leaves as one of the most memorable acts of the weekend. The London-based poet left hoards of people stunned at Glastonbury and sent viral videos around the internet for days after, and her performance at Electric Fields was every bit as memorable.

Tempest has released two albums of music to date (as well as a novel, numerous collections of poetry and much more) and has received widespread critical acclaim for both, including a Mercury Award-nomination for each record.

Both albums are narrative-driven explorations of modern day society. They tell a story from start to finish, and make comment about the modern-day state of the world while they’re at it.

What this does mean is that when you see Kate Tempest live it’s unlikely you’ll be treated to a ‘Greatest Hits’ style performance; even at a music festival, where most bands tend to roll out a setlist made from their biggest hits and crowd pleasers.

Tempest closed the ‘Tenement TV’ stage on Friday night by playing her latest record, the 13-track Let Them Eat Chaos in its entirety. You don’t have to previously be familiar with her work to enjoy it, though. Just turn up, watch and listen, and you will be blown away by the performance. The audience is hanging on every word that comes out of the Londoner’s mouth.

Let Them Eat Chaos looks at day-to-day life in modern society, and the bigger picture of it all, from the perspective of numerous different characters, all of whom live in the same apartment block and going about their regular routine at 4.18am.

Lines like single release ‘Europe is Lost’ take aim at the government: “Caught sniffing lines off a prostitute’s prosthetic tits / Now it's back to the house of lords with slapped wrists / They abduct kids and fuck the heads of dead pigs / But him in a hoodie with a couple of spliffs? / Jail him, he’s the criminal."

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Live Review: Frightened Rabbit - Electric Fields Festival, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, 1 September 2017

4/9/2017

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By their own admission, Frightened Rabbit are not your typical festival headliner and their Electric Fields headline pairing with Dizzee Rascal does make for a very odd couple.

The reason for this may be that, despite being one of Scotland's favourite indie collectives, they've always been viewed as a bit on the miserable side. They don't appear to be the feel-good vibes band you want at the top your bill.
 
Their set at Electric Fields immediately reminds people that, while they are a great band to listen to in the dark whilst having a cry, they also have plenty of uplifting numbers in their bag as well.
 
They open with the huge singalong 'Get Out' before a rollicking version of 'Holy' and follow this up with the anthemic choruses of 'Modern Leper', 'I Wish That I Was Sober' and 'Head Rolls Off'. It's immediately apparent that we're not in for a set of sulking-in-the-corner-thinking-about-your-ex-music; we're in for some throw-your-arm-around-the-nearest-stranger-and-sing-it-loud music. Which by and large, is festival-headliner music.
 
Drawing from a consistent back catalogue of five albums, Frightened Rabbit play near perfect renditions of anthems that rival anything from such festival favourites as Kings of Leon, The Killers and U2. The only difference is that their unmasked Scottish accents along with Scott Hutchison's raw, emotional lyrics makes the connection between the band and audience that bit stronger.

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