I decided it was a good idea to head on down earlier than I normally would for a queue wait. Not too much earlier, mind. I had to be mindful of how much time I’d spend on my feet. I was hopeful that it being the second of the two shows and it not being sold out (unlike the previous night) that the queue might not be as packed out earlier in the day. I timed it pretty well with only a handful of people ahead of me in the queue when I arrived around 5.15pm.
Familiar faces abound. Mark and Marion were just ahead of me and to my surprise Chloe was there too! She had been the previous night as well, as had Marion. Most of the people in the queue had been the previous night. I was the only slacker who couldn’t do two gigs back-to-back. Although Mark hadn’t been there the previous night, he’d been to another event the night before. There were also other people who I’d met at the Assai event there as well. And there were two people who’d travelled to Glasgow to attend the gig: a lady from Paris, and a guy from California. The Twilight Sad have a very dedicated fanbase.
I believe I had chosen well to attend the second of the two nights because, despite the queue, it wasn’t quite the crazy free-for-all getting up the stairs and into the auditorium as I was fearing. In fact I got as near to the centre as I have ever managed to get for a Barras gig – with the help of Mark and Marion. They kept a spot for me, which I was very thankful for. For although I got to the barrier as quickly as I could, that still isn’t exactly a sprint for me.
There were two support acts: Theo Bleak and Deary. I enjoyed the former more than the latter, although the latter’s drummer had quite the sound. Very good! Deary had quite the Cocteau Twins vibe to their sound. Couldn’t really pick up any of the lyrics the vocalist was singing, so I think that made it feel comparative to Liz Fraser. I recorded a snippet of each of them. I didn’t take any photos of Deary as the lighting on them was so dim and there was so much fog from the smoke machine I felt it futile to bother. Both of their sets were about six songs in length. The tech crew were speedy with the stage re-sets. There were no long wait times at all. Everything was very prompt.
The Twilight Sad hit the stage at 9.15pm sharp. James was pumped and ready for another night of belting it out. The set started with ‘Dead Flowers’ a track off new album, It’s the Long Goodbye – quickly followed by the trio of singles from the album, ‘Designed to Lose,’ ‘Attempt a Crash Landing’ and ‘Waiting for the Phone Call.’ There were also plenty of tracks from previous album It Won/t Be Like This All The Time: ‘Vtr’ (which James dedicated to a member of the Barras team who had recently passed away), ‘The Arbor,’ ‘Videograms,’ and my personal fave – the one that lured me – ‘I/m Not Here.’
There continued on a strong showcase for It’s the Long Goodbye with ‘Inhospitable/Hospital,’ ‘Chestwound to the Chest,’ ‘Get Away from it All,’ ‘Back to Fourteen,’ and ‘TV People Still Throwing TVs at People’ all getting an airing and thus meaning all bar one track of the entire album was performed.
‘Last January’ and ‘There’s a Girl in the Corner’ from 2014’s Nobody Wants to Be Here & Nobody Wants to Leave. And would ANY Twilight Sad gig be complete without a rendition of ‘Cold Days from the Birdhouse’?
It was my first experience of seeing them live (discounting the Assai event) – like, properly, full band and sound in a concert venue and I am very keen to see them again. I don’t know whether it was me personally or what, but I did experience some sound problems. It was by far the loudest gig I have experienced at the Barras. Not so much when the support acts were on, but when TS came out, it seemed as if the volume had been ramped up. Sometimes it seemed James’ vocal was lost in the mix and I couldn’t hear him very well. Towards the end of the night he said his voice was gone and he’d been struggling through the set, so perhaps that was the problem? It really didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all and there was so much love in the room for them. They are REALLY loved by their fan base and rightly so. There is so much raw emotion in their music and in the way James performs and sings. He really delivers a heart-rending performance. As I say, I am eager to see them again, and It’s the Long Goodbye is already a stone cold classic just six weeks from its release.
They’re touring the festival circuit in the summer, on the bill at Isle of Wight with big supporters The Cure on Sunday 21 June, before that they’re in Walton-on-Trent for the Bearded Theory Festival, then over to Florence, back for IOW, then in Cardiff, over to Ireland for a couple of shows, then Slovakia and then a three-date extravaganza in Berlin in mid-July before returning to the UK for the Deer Shed Festival near the end of July. The majority of these are in support of The Cure. Finally, there are two dates in Portugal in November with other autumn dates soon to be announced.
I hadn’t been to the Barras since near Christmas for the Del Amitri gig where I came close to having a fainting episode for the first time in a long time. On Wednesday night it came close to happening again. I don’t know what it is about the venue but even though I was stripped down to my t-shirt, and I tied my hair up, I find it very oppressive in there. It doesn’t feel like there is much airflow at the front. Towards the end of the set I had to move away. I was waiting for one of the security staff to come by with a cup of water but they had stopped just when I really needed it. I tried to regulate my breathing and get myself okay but it wasn’t working so I had no choice but to move away before it was too late. I didn’t want to faint! I was able to get to the far side of the barrier and ask for some water from a security guy. He passed me a cup and then said he’d get me a larger cup with ice which was so great of him. It really helped and stopped the worst from happening – thankfully. I could still enjoy the rest of the gig, just not from my more prime spot. It’s going to be something I’ll have to consider when thinking of future Barrowland Ballroom gigs.
I did also feel light-headed at Brooke Combe’s gig at St Luke’s but I could feel a breeze and I could temper my breathing better there and didn’t need to move away from the barrier. Once you’re at the front at the Barras you do feel quite penned in. It was a bit of a faff to get myself away from the centre to the far side of the barrier to prevent the worst from happening. Like I say – it’s something I’ll have to consider for the future when it comes to Barras gigs.
I left the auditorium with Mark and Marion and was walking with them back to their car when a black cab came down along Gallowgate. I’d said to them I was going to get myself a cab home. Marion flagged it down and incredulously it pulled over to the curb. I checked with the driver that he could take card payments, he said yes, and so that was me off and home before I knew it. It was great not to have to hang around for ages, that’s for sure.
Tonight there is a listening party with a difference being hosted by Assai at the Glasgow Science Museum planetarium – a playback of Paul Simon’s most recent album, Seven Psalms, as a celebration of his shows at the Hydro on Saturday and Sunday nights. After that will be Hamish Hawk at the auditorium in Oran Mor, performing Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Vol. 0. It’s been a long wait since the Edinburgh Book Fest last year to see him perform it again. Cannae wait!