We like to cover all gigs big and small, and tonight we were to enjoy some quality hard rock at one of Glasgow’s more intimate venues. Audio is located under Central Station and has a capacity of 150 people. It’s a cracking little place and an integral part of Glasgow’s varied music scene.
Three bands on the bill was excellent value for a paltry entry fee. It’s often a complaint that going to see live music is expensive nowadays, and that’s true if you’re looking at many of the larger venues. However there are literally thousands of great, smaller acts that you can see for the price of a couple of pints at venues like this. Tonight was one prime example.
Opening, and all the way from Vienna, were Psycho Village. Or 2/3 of them anyway. I gather that their drummer was ill or broken or something, so there was a masked stand-in. Whoever the mystery stick-smith was did a great job keeping everything in rhythm as Daniel (guitar / vocals) and Alex (bass) filled the stage as if there were six of them, not just two.
As with so many acts I’ve seen over the last few months, Psycho Village are new to me so I’m not going to name check any songs… because I can’t. Musically though, they’re pretty damn good. There’s a fair amount of backing tapes being used which is fine these days to make the sound more full, but once or twice the vocal tracks overshadowed Daniel’s live performance. The band also made use of two large backdrops and projectors which really made Audio look pretty good.
Their music is hard, heavy and catchy and the front twosome have a lot of chemistry, obviously a pair who have been working together for a long time. The audience gave them their full attention and Psycho Village gave a great performance in return. Our apologies to the band for the lack of photos – Angela had a memory card problem and lost about half the photos from the show. Gutted!
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Liberty Lies are a band we have encountered several times before from Bloodstock. Tonight was a great chance to catch up with them after a few years and see (and more importantly hear!) how things are going with them. Like Psycho Village before them, there were no nerves and they simply burst on stage and ploughed right into “Someone Else” and “Undivided” (if I have my notes right).
The whole band were on point, and the sound was great as well. Their sound is pretty much slap bang in the middle of “hard rock” and very easy to pick up and get lost in. Seeing all of the having such a great time got the audience going, too. I’d not say it would be fair to class Liberty Lies as a band tonight. They weren’t warming the crowd up for anyone. They were out there giving it their all and got the reaction any quality act would expect as a result.
Their set went by all too fast, but it was great to hear songs from ages ago like “Vultures” and “The Wire”. They definitely saved the best for last, though, powering through “Mouth Breather” and “Are You Listening?” with the audience fully engaged.
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Tonight’s headliners were The Fallen State who we’ve also featured a few times, though I’ve not caught them live myself. Ross has seen them ing other acts (Devilskin amongst them) and was impressed each time. And I can see how. Firstly, the greased lightning set change has me once again wondering why we often wait 40 minutes between acts at other venues. Take guitars off. Bring guitars on. Done. I means soundcheck is done in the afternoon, right? Then the band literally sprinting and bounding onto the stage. No time was to be wasted as they crammed a load of material and fun into their hour or so.
The Fallen State are arguably the heaviest band of the evening, though still definitely a hard as it comes rock band. They also have a great bunch of fans in the building who know the songs. I would have expected / hoped for more, but Glasgow is rammed with gigs these days and The Temperance Movement are on at Barrowlands, undoubtedly syphoning a few ticket sales. Their loss (though I’m sure Ross will argue differently in his review) as Audio was hosting a belter. Despite some technical issues with the screens and the bass amp, which were rectified around the songs being played, the evening went well.
Again, I’m not wholly familiar with the material but I really enjoyed what I heard and witnessed. The dual vocals really worked well, with original singer Ben re-ing the band for the duration of the tour (and maybe beyond?). The two mic-smiths acted as if they’d been a live pairing for years with no clashes or anything, and the lines bouncing back and forth between them.
While I didn’t know any of the songs enough to name them I enjoyed enough to know I wanted to give them a re-listen back home. “Knives” was great, but nothing compared to “Nova”. Right from the off I knew this song was different, and the video playing behind backed that up. A heartfelt, if still belting, number it’s a song about loss. And it hits. Being honest, my eyes were getting cloudy by the end and I could see a fan in front of me wiping the tears from her eyes as she sang along. This is one powerful song and I did check it out when I got home. Reading the comments on the YouTube video… wow. If you listen to one song to check out The Fallen State, then this is it.
A great night out, and at a bargain price. I’d only like to apologise to the bands for not staying to chat at the end, but I had to get back to my daughter so I didn’t want to hang around too late. Partly as I needed to check on her, partly as I knew she’d baked cookies for me coming home. Rock music and biscuits, does life get any better?
Photos by Skull Lens Photography
[…] we’ll catch Fury at Hella Rock Festival in Coventry on 30th August. As for Liberty Lies, we caught them opening for The Fallen State (which they came out of hiding for – tonight was a warmup and hopefully they stick around!) and […]