Date: 6th March 05

Venue: Glasgow Barrowlands

Ah the Barras, the venue that looks so dank, grimey and dirty that even illegal raves wouldn’t be held in it. But still I love it, it has loads of character and atmosphere, this was the first time I have been there in about 2 years as most bands will play the Acadamy these days.

Ok, no idea who the support act were, some blonde girl and her comrades thrashing out tunes on their axes or whatever, my mate Gary said it best……. we already have had one Transvision Vamp in the late 80s, we don’t need another.

But as soon as they had played there 45 minutes (the usual cheer goes up when it is announced ‘here’s our last song’ ok, so only I cheered). Now I must confess that I do not listen to many guitar bands these days, I mostly flutter around with alternative dance and hip hop (but not the mainstream charty shite) but there are some band that I have a wee soft spot for. Mercury Rev are one of these bands.

My friend Alex introduced me to them back in October 2001 when his mate pulled out of going to see them and I was offered the ticket instead. At this point I hadn’t really heard anything by them. What a treat I got that night when they took the stage. This happened again when I saw them at Ned’s in the Park in 2002.

Tonight was no different. Mercury Rev have a magnificence about them, their music, their stage presence, their dress sense, their visuals all just make you go ‘WOW, I am witnessing something special here’.

The bands set was flawless as they rolled out tracks from their earlier albums such as ‘Opus 40′, ‘Holes’,'Tides of the Moon’ and ‘Little Rhymes’ plus a whole heep of tracks from their latest long player ‘The Secret Migration’ (well worth checking out, plug, plug). The audience loved them. You can really feel the emotion behind each song as the band play each song with a degree of dignaty.

When it came to encore time we were treated to ‘Godess On A Highway’ and ‘Spiders and Flies’, two excellent songs to finish the night with, but after they left the stage, the house lights did not come back up and what do you know….. second encore and what better way to finish the night than with ‘The dark is Rising’ taken from the ‘All is Dream’ album. The band were on top form and gave the crowd a night of tight, well performed, beautiful music. My personal favorite ‘Nite and Fog’ was not part of the set, but after watching them play great song after great song, I let them off with this. The band could have easily played for another hour. CURSE YOU LICENCING LAWS, CURSE YOU!!!!!

All in all, a excellent night with an excellent band. Now go buy their albums!!!!!

G.I.