Grinderman @ Barrowlands 28/9/10

Tonight sees, what is still to some a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds side-project, Grinderman visit Glasgow for the first time and this early into the tour they are in a rousing mood.

Promoting second album Grinderman 2 Cave and co have managed to distance themselves from the Bad Seeds material by coming at it from a different angle.

Cave’s usual avenues of song writing have been cut off, no love or religion under this alter ego! The result is a much more raw, raunchy rock ‘n’ roll sound, far removed from his heavily ballad ridden Bad Seeds work.

Grinderman has gradually moved away from being just a side project since the release of their self-titled debut in 2007. This is further emphasised by the easily sold out crowd at the Barrowlands tonight, a bigger venue than the Bad Seeds played on their last visit to Glasgow.

Opener tonight ‘Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man’ sees the four-piece start in an explosive fashion before pushing into the Cave speciality explicit charms of ‘Worm Tamer’.

A quick breather is given to the band when Bad Seeds stalwart Warren Ellis blows his amp, prompting Cave to input “Warren’s blown up his third amp of the tour”, which is incidentally only four days old.

The mere mention of Ellis’ name provokes the crowd into a spell of Warren worship. A number of adoring fans in the audience proclaim their love for the bearded multi-instrumentalist, to which Ellis quips “I’m looking for a good divorce lawyer”.

The oozing sexuality of Grinderman is no better shown than in the stand out tracks from their debut album. It is these songs also that prove the set stand outs, ‘Get It On’ and ‘ No Pussy Blues’ convey opposite sides of Cave’s sex driven lyrical world, but both rouse the crowd into massive sweaty sing-a-longs.

‘Man in the Moon’, ‘When My Love Comes Down’ and their self-titled track create a strong and dazing yet moving encore. The complaint anyone could have is the lack of Bad Seeds tracks making appearance, however this does not seem to bother most in attendance, further justifying the testament that Grinderman is a stand alone band in their own right.

Grinderman 2 is out now on Anti-.

Fang Island @ Captain’s Rest 5/9/10

Fang Island are one of the latest of the wave of New York artists labeled as “math rock” to pass through the UK. Despite the band’s calculated, mass pedal usage there is a hugely joyous, fun-filled attitude coming along with them.

Support tonight comes from local boys Endor, who bring an atmospheric yet pop filled charm to the start of the evening. Without completely blowing the crowd away, these guys have a solid base and will have won over a few new fans tonight, despite a lot in attendance being here to see them.

As Fang Island fronting duo Jason Bartell and Nicholas Andrew Sadler appear on stage clad in colourful hoodies (wizard like in the case of Bartell), it is hard to tell whether they are the height of New York cool, or the complete opposite. Any doubts on this are quickly quashed by the sheer joy they embody when playing.

Opening with ‘Dream of Dreams’, the band’s head bouncing, energetic antics quickly win over the sadly half full crowd. Still, the relatively small crowd is more than up for the show, and while hesitant during the support are now dancing along enthusiastically, something there isn’t usually room for in the Rest.

The band clearly are enjoying their first visit to Glasgow, or indeed their first full tour, as Bartell emphasises “we’ve never been anywhere before”, after stating how great it was to be here. The happiness these guys put into playing live could win over the most hardhearted music fan.

‘The Illinois’ forms an early highlight of the set conjuring up images of a superhero racing the rescue. The five-piece bounce through tracks from a self-titled debut album worth of mostly instrumental wonder.

As the set progresses into the skies the band move from potential hit to potential hit. Latest single ‘Daisy’ moves into set stand out ‘Sideswiper’ before closing on the explosive bursts of ‘Davey Crockett’.

By the end of the set it simply doesn’t matter if these guys are cool or not, and despite the lackluster attendance this evening, expect a scramble for tickets next time they hit British shores.

Picture: Gordon Ballantyne