Glasvegas Are Back - Live Review
In a sold-out venue with a capacity of only 800 it’s not difficult to measure the height of excitement in a crowd, none more so than when Scotland’s one and only Glasvegas took to the stage in Edinburgh’s Liquid Room after being off the scene, working on the tricky second album, for over a year.
Tags: EUPHORIC /// HEARTBREAK \\\
The band from Glasgow have been away from the homeland hitting the studios in California to record their new album but now they’re back with a fresh batch of songs which are just as dark but easily as popular as their previous material.
They took to the stage accompanied by new Swedish drummer Jonna Löfgren who, like previous drummer Caroline Mackay, plays standing up. Frontman James Allan strode out to cheers from an ecliptic group of fans, fully clad in white trousers and jacket with a black strip of paint replacing his trademark black sunglasses. The stage was enveloped with spotlights and 80s style rope-lights making sure the band were the centre of attention.
The hour-long set consisted almost entirely of old tracks with only three tracks from new album Euphoric ///Heartbreak\\\, including the future classic Take My Hand. Allan isn’t the type of frontman who participates in a lot of stage chat but he made sure the audience knew his appreciation by blowing kisses and nodding his approval when they chanted his lyrics back to him in proper football ground style.
Old tracks Geraldine and the iconic It’s My Own Cheating Heart got the most attention. In fact he didn’t even need to sing the latter because the crowd were belting it out full force. The highlight of the whole set was the heart-felt Flowers and Football Tops, performed in an almost a cappella fashion with only bassist Paul Donoghue adding some synth to back-up the lyrics.
The lack of new songs in the set wasn’t a problem for these guys because they know what the crowd want; their old hits leave nothing to be desired. The encore of classics Daddy’s Gone and unexpectedly Ice Cream Van left the crowd in no doubt that Glasvegas are well and truly back.
