future of the left does glasgow (well stereo anyway)

audience please, every minute matters….

indeed it does.  and tonight down in the bowels of stereo we were witness to sixty minutes of unabashed destructive joy from the apparently not-very-welsh trio that constitute future of the left.  only one of them’s actually from cymru.  maybe i should take more interest in the tabloidy personality cult of modern life and obsessively learn more about rock stars personal lives instead of listening to the tunes, man.  where’s smash hits when you need it? 

there was a support band and as usual i didn’t catch their name.  the ticket said special guests but i’m ninety percent sure that’s not their handle just their status in the gig hierarchy.  they were pretty ace, dealing in the kind of math-y instrumental rock of yr dysrhythmia’s and/or oxes, with an extra splash of funk thanks to their rubberyman bass player.  one of the guitarists was/is possibly the sound guy in nice n sleazys.  those rumours are unconfirmed but may explain why it was aurally clean and professional.  good job chaps.  and if anybody could oblige their secret identities i’d be grateful.

future of the left spat out curses! last year and lo! the baby jeebus said it was a good thing, a wonderful thing.  so arousing it made it onto my best of twothousandandseven cliche.  it’s a vicious, viscous beast of a record.  i’d recommend you buy it. 

so falco’s grew his hair since the last time i saw him.  it makes him look weird now.  like he should be in the soup dragons or creed or something.  he looks all man about c&a.  until of course he starts sweating and shrieking into the mic and bashing bloody hell out of the guitar. 

what to say about the live show?  well it’s an early contender for gig of the year.  yep, that fucking good.  there’s a distinctly fall-ish vibe to the whole sweaty synthy noisey guitary spikey affair.  but with more sonic muscle than hulk hogan and the ultimate warrior combined.  bugger me there’s a wonderfully nasty gleam in these boys eyes.  the banter is wonderfully acerbic.  the lyrics positively moist and dripping with surreal cruelty, genius nonsense and vaguely threatening non-sequiturs, mumbled, chanted, screamed (and i do mean screamed), sang (occasionally) and all traded between falkous and mathias like some foulmouthed noise version of morecambe and wise.

so many highlights:  the misanthropic minimalist glee of fuck the countryside alliance, the almostpop swagger of wrigley scott (listen below), the amusing rawhide vocals that kicks off adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood and the fuzzed up bass violence of the lord hates a coward and small bones small bodies.  occasionally they turn into the pop group with a sense of humour and big fuck-off riffs.  it is pure and simple, rock.  combined with the childish delight exhibited hiding behind the amps during the encore to prick that pompous backstage rockstar bubble and the dismantling of jack egglestones drum kit during, yes during, the last song.    

sometimes us glasgow punters come across all apathetic and spoiled and jaded cause you know we’ve already been to like fourteen gigs this week but tonight the atmosphere was one of jovial violence and friendly moshing.  the crowd sang along – colin is a pussy a very pretty pussy being a favourite of mine and features in the manchasm video below - jumped up and down and played willing victims to this acidic onslaught.

 

 

so anyway manchasm is out as a seven inch single (it’s made of vinyl retard).  buy it.

they’re still on tour this month.  go see them.    

10 apr 2008 fuzz club (sheffield university union) sheffield

13 apr 2008 whelan’s (bud rising) dublin

14 apr 2008 roadhouse manchester

18 apr 2008 camden crawl london

19 apr 2008 camden crawl london

21 apr 2008 garage london, london and south east

25 apr 2008 resistenze esistenze @ ex aurum pescara

15 may 2008 great escape festival (ocean rooms) brighton

band / label / theirspace / purchase