The recent practice of not being able to organise a piss-up in the proverbial brewery continues. It hardly seems credible that the London jaunt was a week ago. But it was and in the run-up to now, I’ve caught The Last Town Chorus and The New York Dolls at the ABC in Glasgow. It’s a great venue. Like a non-claustrophobic version of the Astoria in London. Good sight lines and another bar adjacent to the main hall if you want to dodge any of the proceedings, like the gimps that opened for the Dolls. But more about that later…
The Last Town Chorus opened for The Guillemots to a packed house. I’m not terribly familiar with the latter but what I saw of them was OK. I reckoned it might have been horrendous but it wasn’t. I’d have liked to have seen the songs that Megan joined ‘em for but had to cut out because it was a school night. I was knackered from a day trying to sort out stuff here in the bunker too. So anyway, The LTC presented that trademark atmospheric lap steel to an appreciative audience. The sound was great and theirs is music that literally soared under such conditions. The material from the new Wire Waltz set really shimmered and the only bugbear was that some of the audience gibbered too loudly over the quiet parts. The spare, almost orchestral nature of this demands a certain respectful silence. Why do people go to see shows and slaver their brains out during a performance? The LTC return to Glasgow in December and elsewhere in the UK too. I’ll post the dates when I get ‘em.
Thursday was The Dolls. Ever since the Arthur film I’ve been kicking myself that I didn’t go to the Royal Festival Hall. Then I remembered that one of the main reasons was that they had the drummer from The Libertines. The opening act was something called Towers Of London. First I saw of them was the cover of the Guardian Guide last Saturday. Apparently there’s a “reality” TV show on Bravo which gives these no-hopers a platform for their charismatically-challenged punk metal by numbers. They make McFly seem like the fucking Allman Brothers. Identikit safe rubbish for the Big Brother generation and utterly devoid of any redeeming features. Apart from that, they’re great. This is where that other bar in the venue came in very handy. The Dolls on the other hand were absolutely fabulous and the intro tape really set the tone for a set that mixed plenty of old and new. Like I’ve said before, the new album is damned good and concerns in some quarters that it veers too close to metal in parts are unfounded in my opinion. They’re having a lot of fun up there and I think that there are good vibes involved with this particular resurrection that don’t apply to the dollar-grabbing actions of some “living legends”. Like The Fleshtones the Friday before, this is a band that puts on a show. The version of “Piece Of My Heart” would have been trite in lesser hands but it was fantastic situated as it was in the set. The version of “(Fucking) Pills” was incendiary. The band are full on and have their own identity. It’s not just a hollow homage to a bygone era. It was like an old fashioned Glasgow night out and a lot of the throng had been waiting a long time for this show. Johansen is one of the great frontmen, his gurning and presence is a reminder of what this game is all about. I think that the reaction on this last night of the tour surprised them. In a just world, the NY Dolls would have played at the old Apollo back during the pre(UK) punk wars but I’m glad they’re still around and pounding it out with this much gusto. It restores one’s faith to some degree.
The clocks go back tonight and I have to bloody work tomorrow. So much to do and way too little time. Now it’s time to check out the new Peter C. Johnson album “Yaka Yaka” and to watch the Demolition Doll Rods dvd as an antidote to the excrecable Saturday night TV roster. All going well there’ll be another missive soon, after all there’s an extra hour coming up…
The Last Town Chorus opened for The Guillemots to a packed house. I’m not terribly familiar with the latter but what I saw of them was OK. I reckoned it might have been horrendous but it wasn’t. I’d have liked to have seen the songs that Megan joined ‘em for but had to cut out because it was a school night. I was knackered from a day trying to sort out stuff here in the bunker too. So anyway, The LTC presented that trademark atmospheric lap steel to an appreciative audience. The sound was great and theirs is music that literally soared under such conditions. The material from the new Wire Waltz set really shimmered and the only bugbear was that some of the audience gibbered too loudly over the quiet parts. The spare, almost orchestral nature of this demands a certain respectful silence. Why do people go to see shows and slaver their brains out during a performance? The LTC return to Glasgow in December and elsewhere in the UK too. I’ll post the dates when I get ‘em.
Thursday was The Dolls. Ever since the Arthur film I’ve been kicking myself that I didn’t go to the Royal Festival Hall. Then I remembered that one of the main reasons was that they had the drummer from The Libertines. The opening act was something called Towers Of London. First I saw of them was the cover of the Guardian Guide last Saturday. Apparently there’s a “reality” TV show on Bravo which gives these no-hopers a platform for their charismatically-challenged punk metal by numbers. They make McFly seem like the fucking Allman Brothers. Identikit safe rubbish for the Big Brother generation and utterly devoid of any redeeming features. Apart from that, they’re great. This is where that other bar in the venue came in very handy. The Dolls on the other hand were absolutely fabulous and the intro tape really set the tone for a set that mixed plenty of old and new. Like I’ve said before, the new album is damned good and concerns in some quarters that it veers too close to metal in parts are unfounded in my opinion. They’re having a lot of fun up there and I think that there are good vibes involved with this particular resurrection that don’t apply to the dollar-grabbing actions of some “living legends”. Like The Fleshtones the Friday before, this is a band that puts on a show. The version of “Piece Of My Heart” would have been trite in lesser hands but it was fantastic situated as it was in the set. The version of “(Fucking) Pills” was incendiary. The band are full on and have their own identity. It’s not just a hollow homage to a bygone era. It was like an old fashioned Glasgow night out and a lot of the throng had been waiting a long time for this show. Johansen is one of the great frontmen, his gurning and presence is a reminder of what this game is all about. I think that the reaction on this last night of the tour surprised them. In a just world, the NY Dolls would have played at the old Apollo back during the pre(UK) punk wars but I’m glad they’re still around and pounding it out with this much gusto. It restores one’s faith to some degree.
The clocks go back tonight and I have to bloody work tomorrow. So much to do and way too little time. Now it’s time to check out the new Peter C. Johnson album “Yaka Yaka” and to watch the Demolition Doll Rods dvd as an antidote to the excrecable Saturday night TV roster. All going well there’ll be another missive soon, after all there’s an extra hour coming up…
No luck with uploading images, if this appears then at least the ordinary post facility is operating. Or is it?