The Next Big Thing

Sometimes dread has a habit of working out positively. It’s a mindset that has served me well and during yesterday, the longest day of the year – the napper was in overdrive. It was the day that Stereo Total brought their unique brand of everything cool you ever heard over the past thirty years put through the mincer. Add a few grains of dodgier substance and you’ve got a magical elixir which works on multiple levels. The whole thing is gift-wrapped in a charm which could sell snow to the Eskimos.

Anyway, way across town - Boner and his chums were holding court in Hampden Stadium. The thought of having to travel in a train packed with U2 fans wasn’t very thrilling but very occasionally it’s worth making a sacrifice. It’s not like sharing airspace with O*sis fans after all but I hate crammed spaces more with every passing day. Anyway, this was all misguided as we managed to body swerve the hordes all the way. It meant some tactical bobbing and weaving but paid off.

The basement of Oran Mor was crammed and up for the event. Way busier than the SCOTS show but equally good-natured. The opening band was awful, can’t remember their name but they were too loud and entirely inappropriate as was 99% of the “mood” music that played between sets. Adventures In Stereo had to pull out at the last minute due to some health problems that I hope will be resolved. I think that Glasgow could do with some of their breezy pop action. Their intervention would have complemented ST perfectly.



So anyway, The Stereo Total experience and audience reaction was again heartening. For such a diverse crowd to bond to the strains of this frankly odd music suggests there is hope for us all. Their last two albums have seen the recorded work become less Spartan but no less punk rock savvy. There are some mighty noises coming from this French/German two headed groove machine that can evoke Suicide cruising with The ELO then rattle out a jaggy Charles Trenet cover. Now that’s not something you can hear and see every day. Hopefully they’ll come back to Glasgow soon and capitalise on this excellent west end reception. It was all over too soon and we beat a hasty retreat to try and dodge the stadium, er “rockers” as the ones that obviously left during the encore trickled into Queen Street Station with their U2 swag bags filled with lord knows what overpriced swill. A guy sitting in front of us had recorded portions of the show on his moby and it sounded like mush. Ha Ha serves him right.

In my opinion, Stereo Total make music that is better suited to world peace than the big stroboscopic Dublin corporation that blew into Glasgow and shook down umpteen thousand willing victims. But it’s their choice.