Aereogramme / Whipster
Waterfront, Rotterdam
16/05/03
It can be a weird life living in a foreign country. Different languages and different customs can eventually go unnoticed but every so often something will highlight the things you miss or can even make you feel more at home in your new surroundings.
Well for me, Aereogramme’s visit to Rotterdam was an opportunity to be around Scottish live music once more and to hear Glasgow accents in the same Dutch room as me. It’s a comfort factor more than anything. As singer, Craig B was to say from stage later in the night, “we don’t use vowels and we can’t pronounce T’s” and when you’re around people who understand that you don’t have to try so hard to change it.
So putting the music aside for a moment the presence of these 4 guys was already a boost to me. Unfortunately before they could get on stage, Groningen band, Whipster was due up.
They started pleasantly enough. A long drawn out intro, but at least the guys could play. Well it is just as well they could play with the total age of the band looking to total around 250 years instead of a respectable 100 or so. Perhaps best not to be ageist though. Nothing had gone horribly wrong until the vocals started and the spirit of Mark Knopfler emerged out of nowhere.
It perhaps wasn’t as horrific as it sounds. Instead it was quite funny and made it impossible to take them seriously as they made a valiant attempt at melding Mogwai with Dire Straits. Unfortunately their set seemed to last for hours and almost did. Each song was slow to medium paced with a long intro, a little singing and then an even longer outro.
Thank God then for Aereogramme at last.
Having toured all over the world in 2003 in support of their album Sleep and Release they are as tight as can be. It was evident in the first two minutes alone as they started with ‘Older’ - half the band is running around the stage playing with the levels of samplers and laptops whilst Craig B calmly carries on the solo part knowing everyone will be ready for the approaching burst of noise. They’re clearly a well oiled machine and everything snaps into place by the time a bout of lung bursting screaming from guitarist, Iain Cook comes along to knock you off your feet.
The strength of this band is not purely their ability to do the quiet-loud-quiet routine though. It is because they have mastered both the quiet and the loud genres, giving them the power to gain your trust before ripping your head off – if they feel like it. If they’re in a better mood they can play music that strokes you on the head to comfort you instead.
Louder songs set the pace for the first part of the set, with ‘No Really, Everything’s Fine’ and ‘Indiscretion #243’ using sampled strings and piano parts to add extra depth with layers of sound. At their heaviest they can easily hold their own with bands like Tool and Neurosis.
However, they don’t like their softer side to be forgotten which is why they have been such fitting touring partners with The Delgados in recent times. The key piece of evidence being their rendition of ‘In Gratitude’, perhaps the closest they stray to a ballad, yet still played loud enough to mask the talking amongst the audience.
After an hour the fun had to end and the set was closed by a ferocious cover of ‘Snake’ by PJ Harvey, as they joked that it was the only words the previous crowd in Belgium had understood. In contrast, the Rotterdam crowd was loud and to be perfectly honest full of some of the freakiest people I’ve seen in one room. Maybe it was just the Friday night atmosphere or just too close to the full moon.
In the end, all that matters is the band won out.
Steven McCarron
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