PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
It’s a busy Friday night in Glasgow, and I find myself on Sauchiehall Street lined with hundreds of restaraunts serving food from around the world, trendy wine bars and fantastic shops. But none of these things interest me this evening. The mass of bodies snaking away from the from door of a converted cinema is where I’m heading because IN FLAMES are in town tonight and it’s been waaaaay to long since I’ve had my live fix of the Swedish metallers.
Tonights opening band WOVENWAR are warmly welcomed by the small yet steadily growing crowd. As their set goes on the few hardcore fans spur on the rest of the crowd around them and before long a good number of those assembled are bouncing, moshing and head banging along. Bass player Josh Gilbert works the crowd well and even takes over lead vocals on the track “Matter of Time”. All too soon though their time is up and closing track “Prophets” builds slowly but kicks in with a crushing riff sends the crowd seven shades of mental. 7/10
The crowd has swelled somewhat by the time the house lights go down again and a blood red wash floods the stage. The red is matched by the flags draped over the guitar amps and mic stand. These flags are emblazoned with the logo of tonights main support, Sheffileds WHILE SHE SLEEPS. Despite some initial sound issues the band deliver a consistently high energy set with not one of the five bodies on stage staying still for very long if at all. From the second opening track “Death Toll” begins the crowd are right where front man Lawrence Taylor wants them – in the palm of his hand. Spending as much time on the crowd control barrier as he does on stage Taylor urges the crowd on throughout the set. By the time closing track “Seven Hills” has sent the While She Sleeps faithful (and there are a fair few in attendance tonight) into raptures Taylor has them so worked up they’d probably riot on command. 7/10
As soon as the Sheffield metalcore crew leave the stage an army of stage hands swarm on and begin setting up an impressive stage set and lighting rig. A smoke machine begins blasting out high volumes of smoke and the vast, cavernous venue is soon filled. The machine keeps the room filled right up to the point that the house lights go down for the final time tonight. It’s time for IN FLAMES.
The crowd respond loudly as the individual members of the band appear of stage, as a bright blue strobe lights pulse outwards from the stage in time with the electronic introduction to tonights doubled barrelled opener of “In Plain View” and “Everything’s Gone”.
Lead singer Anders Friden is a charming and charismatic front man and his (quick frankly polite) request for crowd surfers is immediately and enthusiastically responded to by the near full house. Tonight Anders reminds Glasgow why we love live music – its uniqueness. In his first real interaction with the crowd tonight he urges everyone on the floor to put their phones and cameras away and actually watch the show because they have “paid a lot of bloody money and should enjoy it” whilst reminding them “There’s someone up the back filming the whole show and they’ll have it on Youtube by the time you get home”.
The set tonight covers nearly all of the bands career reaching way back to 1999’s Colony (for the track “Resin”) and touching every album up to their latest offering “Siren Charms”. Despite nearly half of the set coming from the last two albums (this years “Siren Charms and 2011’s “Sounds of the Playground Fading”) its obvious the crowd are here to hear the older songs in the catalogue with songs like “Trigger”, “Only for the Weak” and “Cloud Connected” getting rapturous responces from the assembled crowd.
Anders obsession with the fans and their phones continues all the way through the set, but in such a way that it doesn’t detract from the show and in one case actually becomes the show. He invites an audience member up on to the stage to film the crowd scream the name of the city. The kid and crowd play their parts well here, and the youngster gets to stay on stage and films the entirety of “Only For the Weak” whilst moshing and head banging with the band.
After a hauntingly beautiful rendition of “The Chosen Pessimist” Anders tells the crowd they’ve “been standing still too long” before the band launch into a powerful and blistering performance of Rusted Nail. This is what leads us into tonights “encore” of “The Mirrors Truth” “Deliver Us” and the epic finale “Take This Life” sending the crowd away into the night more than satisfied. 8.5/10
Review by Steve Allen and photos by Jurga Kalinauskaitė
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