[avatar =”Gary” size=”50″ align=”left” /][Photo sets: L7 / Black Moth]
First up this evening are a band I have not long been listening to with last year’s album Condemned To Hope getting a lot of air time on the iPod. Black Moth have been gathering pace recently and they have been getting lots of great reviews from all the major publications.
The band bounce onto the stage to a mostly full Glasgow Garage. Jim Swainston (guitar), Nico Carew (guitar), Dave Vachon (bass) & Dom McCready (drums) launch into “The Undead King of Rock n Roll” from last year’s album as Harriet Bevan (vocals) leaps on stage to take the mic. Great sound tonight and Harriet’s vocals soar out.
The band have a great Doom, Stoner, metal sound which I love as do a lot of the crowd going by the strong reaction tonight. They launch into the opening track from last year’s fantastic opus with the track “Tumbleweave” followed up quickly by “Blackbirds Fall” from 2012 album The Killing Jar. The band moving onto “Tree of Woe” followed by “Spit out your Teeth” and you can see why Harriet loves L7 so much. This track with it’s full-on grunge sound pounding away would not have been out of place on a L7 album.
They move onto “Looner”, a stoner riff laden monster, then finish an all too short set with “The Articulate Dead” from The Killing Jar album – a killer track to end the set with… a real mash of early Seattle grunge mixed with Halestorm/The Pretty Reckless and you are close. Like your Stoner/Grunge/Sabbath mixed up? Then go see this band, buy their music and you will not be disappointed.
The main event, after a long absence from 2001 to 2014 when they reunited, L7 consists of Jennifer Finch (Bass/vocals), Dee Plakas (Drummer), Donita Sparks (guitar/vocals), Suzi Gardner (guitar/vocals). They are back and boy are they ever!!!
Bounding onto the stage tonight they all have huge smiles and look a touch surprised at the huge roar that went up as they came on stage, kicking it off with “Deathwish” from Smell the Magic with Donita and Jennifer bouncing about like kids on a sugar rush, Dee pounding away with a big grin and Suzi rocking away stage left.
Next up “Andres” from Hungry for Stink quickly followed by the awesome “Everglade” from Bricks are Heavy. It’s hard to shoot photos when you are singing along and want to bounce about at the same time! Time to come out the pit and watch the girls in full flow and what a show. The girls are rocking the Garage and the crowd are going with them.
“Monster”, “Scrap” and “Fuel my Fire” follow in quick succession as the girls never slow down – no complaints here! Another from Bricks are Heavy follows with “Diet Pill”, then “(Right on) Thru”, followed by “Freak Magnet”. The music just keeps going with no let-up; the girls seem re-energised following their long spell away and are chatty, happy, laughing away, bouncing all over the stage. This is the L7 of old, just older but young at heart and showing it tonight.
Another from the awesome Bricks are Heavy and one of my favourite tracks “One more Thing”. Hard to sing along, bounce about with the cameras still round my neck, grinning like a Cheshire cat. This is a great setlist for L7 fans young and old. The pace is frantic as you would expect, all rock & attitude no let-up just bang, bang, bang with the Garage getting very warm indeed.
“I Need” is next followed by “Slide” closely followed by “Shove”, “Mr Integrity”… and the awesome “Shitlist” closes the set for tonight as the girls leave the stage to loud cheers & applause. The clapping, shouting, cheering keeps up as the girls come back on for the encore which kicks off with “American Society”.
Next up, the beat starts and the crowd cheer as “Pretend we’re Dead” kicks in with all the 90’s grunge sound you love with L7 and the crowd cheers, jumps about and sing along (including yours truly). The all too short gig ends with “Fast and Frightening” from Smell the Magic and we truly did Smell it tonight.
The sell out crowd here tonight saw L7 on top form – really enjoying themselves and putting on a fantastic setlist from across their incredible back catalogue. You don’t expect a three hour show from these girls. What you get is the real deal: hard, fast and full of Rock n Roll, a truly great night. Big grins all round from the band and the crowd.
Don’t stay away too long this time girls!
