NME Awards Tour
O2 ABC, Glasgow
Jonathan Geddes
Four stars
Although opening act Wytches only joined the NME's annual tour after Glasgow's Amazing Snakeheads pulled out suddenly, they are the sort of band the magazine could have championed any time over the past 30 years. The trio's heads were bowed while bursts of noise alternated between psychedelia and grunge, but there was still enough of a groove present to be enjoyable.
More abrasive were Slaves, a Kent duo dealing in sing-song punk. The fact their set also featured a man dressed as a Buckfast-swigging manta ray indicated humour beneath primal guitar and drums tunes, and while Royal Blood comparisons are inevitable, the vocal style was more indebted to Ian Dury and PIL era Lydon than anything else. Strikingly impressive.
If that set touched on British eccentricity, then Fat White Family were headbutting the Stooges and the Velvets. The Londoners might already be known for various shock-rock antics, but here their shamanic sound dominated attention. While often veering close to disintegration, it also sounded surprisingly hefty, and although their melodic moments weren't quite as good, they crafted a tremendously hazy din well worth getting lost in.
Which left Palma Violets, graduates from the 2013 tour and, according to the onstage introduction, heralding the "dawning of a new age". That's either one of the all-time hilarious exaggerations or we can feverishly anticipate a brave new world powered by a sub-Libertines racket.
The foursome had some highlights - the garage thrust of Step Up For The Cool Cats and indie pop of Best Of Friends - but the songs weren't brutal enough to succeed as sheer noise, nor melodic enough to charm, and the audience thinned out considerably as they played. For all their energy, the impression was of a group relentlessly in pursuit of the average.
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