PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Some things come awaited but still unexpectedly. That was happened to me with the Covenant gig in The Classic Grand, Glasgow. With the last minute confirmation I managed to miss the first opening act – Advance but was lucky enough to catch Glaswegian synth pop band Analog Angel and Swedish electro legends themselves – Covenant. They are starting their UK tour with a trip to Scotland to play in Glasgow. Covenant made it spectacular for everybody, who came on this rainy Tuesday night to see them.
Analog Angel were the first that I managed to catch in The Classic Grand. Super funny and lively guys from Glasgow who were chosen as the main opening act for Covenant and although Covenant themselves
are darker and deeper, Analog Angel was definitely great choice as support. Rare to see live, this Glaswegian version of Depeche Mode, Mesh with the entertaining girl in latex dress was something worth checking out live. The club wasn’t packed but still quite full and once Analog Angel started at twenty minutes past eight, people started moving and waking up from their winter sleep. It was obvious that the Glaswegian guys felt at home – there was quite strong contact with the audience, freedom on the stage, jokes and overall fun, wrapped in danceable synth pop music. After a 40 minutes set, band left the stage for the main act to come.
Covenant. It took only 20 minutes to prepare themselves and start with a long noisy and harsh intro – “Leaving Babylon”. After almost 10 minutes the very gallant Eskil Simonsson broke the noise wall with his vibrant voice and melody, which came in the “Bullet” song from “Northern Light” album. After a couple more songs band encountered some technical issues with the sound and handled calmly and elegantly. It
was quickly solved and the music floated further. Dark, deep and still danceable electronic music made people move and sing along, the atmosphere, created by those three guys on the stage was brilliant – warm, involving and not letting anyone go (even if you had a plan not to miss the last train home). Dark melodies, hypnotizing voice, elegance and noise parts every now and then in between songs was something that made me finally understand why people are so crazy about seeing Covenant live – now I am crazy as well. The setlist (which included such shining pearls as “Last Dance”, “Ritual Noise”, “Dead Stars”) was long, and easy to loose the track while counting the songs, as Covenant played no more, no less – two full hours and that was one, very sincere and intimate show.
The show finished with two songs encore and the happy birthday sing along for Andreas Catjar (and cake with candles!).
The band prepared the amazing, groovy and quite intimate show for Glasgow and definitely had a great start for the UK tour. “Thank you for joining the melting pot of chaos” – those Eskil words said sometime during the show made it clear, why all of us were here, melting together.
Links:
www.facebook.com/pages/Covenant-OFFICIAL/156626197713557
www.facebook.com/pages/Analog-Angel/78071440078
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