Aereogramme
Barfly, Glasgow
31/12/03
Aereogramme and New Year’s Eve isn’t the most obvious celebratory combination most people would envisage when deciding how to end one year and begin another, but for me there was no real competition. After the release of Sleep and Release early in 2003, the year of the ’gramme has been dominated by tour after tour, so it seemed the perfect way to end the year was for them to play live in their hometown with the clock ticking down to midnight.
With no support act, it could have been suspected that everything was being kept simple instead of building towards one final blowout, and in a way that was the case. However, there was much more lurking in the workings of this show. For one thing, there were the films being projected onto the back of the (somewhat small) stage. For those who have ever witnessed a Tool concert, the multimedia portion is almost as important as the music, and when you first witness those videos rolling in perfect synchronisation with the music, it’s a really breathtaking moment. Worryingly with Aereogramme, when the projector was first fired up as the band were preparing to begin, it mainly resembled a lecturer booting up a laptop to show some PowerPoint slides, but it did quickly improve. What it lacked in magnitude and perfect timing, the presentation made up for with attitude, providing each song in the set with its own animation or nightmarish video clip to tell a disturbing story behind the story.
The second new challenge of the night was to perform using quadraphonic sound, and in such a small room, it didn’t appear highly likely to be very successful. After all, only a handful of people were in that “sweet spot” to pick up the best sound from all four speakers, but again, it fared better than you would have expected thanks to some imaginative and accurate mixing. Even by standing in the worst place possible, in front of one of the speakers, it was still possible to pick up on sounds being broadcast from different areas of the room, and while it’s not essential to the music, it was still to be admired and enjoyed.
The real reason that everyone was packed into the Barfly, though, wasn’t for the speakers or hastily-installed projector, nor just a place to shelter from the horrific weather. It was for the music and the powerful dynamic this local band produce on stage, and they weren’t going to let anyone down.
Opening with the gentle ‘Egypt’ is one way to keep the audience on their toes but it was never destined to remain quiet for long, with a selection of tracks from both Sleep and Release and A Story in White being unleashed. The band also appears to have their future clearly weighted on their minds though, which led to three new songs being unearthed. It was another brave move in some respects, with only an hour to play, and the year ticking slowly away, but the new numbers only show that Aereogramme are gaining in strength rather than running out of ideas. ‘I Don’t Need Your Love’ demonstrates yet another gentle side to their songwriting, reducing the pace of the set to near-nothing and letting the story unfold in arpeggios and quietened vocals alone. ‘Dreams and Bridges’, on the other hand, is threatening to be a future beast, and again goes to show that you never know what this band will create because it takes aspects of their older styles, mixes in completely new sounds, and just ends with a complete rampage, which was one of the most thrilling parts of the set.
The old b-side ‘Motion’ has finally been allowed out of the closet again, which is just as well considering it’s one of the best songs they ever produced. There’s always been a restriction with this one due to the lack of onstage keyboards, but with this finally resolved, and Iain Cook taking on even more duties than the little laptop does, the sounds available are even more diverse than even six months ago, and this song in particular is completely glorious for it. Whilst most trios inevitably take on an extra member to fill out their onstage sound, the evolution of Aereogramme to a four-piece has added completely new dynamics and continues to open new doors.
From ‘Wood’ to ‘Post Tour Pre Judgement’ to ‘Shouting for Joey’ featuring Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro, Aereogramme were as strong as they can be. There was no fumbling around in end of year sentimentality. Musically, they are only looking forward, and I can’t imagine a better way to have ended 2003.
Steven McCarron
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