Lucius
Lucius
Stereo, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
There was a surprising, and slightly distracting, amount of common ground shared by this hip Brooklyn quintet built around the wonderful voices, blonde bobs and pinafores of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and the show Sophie Ellis Bextor was simultaneously performing for a second evening at Oran Mor - all the way to the by-the-mixing-desk and out-among-the-people acoustic coda at the end.
With their three drums-and-wires chaps in hooped Breton shirts, and the eye-catching percussion and synthware thoughtfully assembled on stage, there is more theatre about Lucius than Stereo often sees.
The Lucius lads and lasses have the musical chops to match too, with the one full-time drummer occasionally joined by up to three of the others as cowbells are whacked with one hand and synth bass stabbed with another, even as the girls combine their contrasting voices in glorious country-esque harmonies.
After some less familiar opening numbers, the set is substantially built around their debut album, newly released in the UK. From it Nothing Ordinary, Turn It Around and Wildewoman are all highlights, but the spare bluesy reading of Go Home provides the undoubted standout spine-tingling moment of the night, a brilliant example of full-stretch, confident, retro-pop genius that was vastly superior live than its recorded incarnation.
As well as doing that, however, Lucius can also turn their collective hand to anthemic album-orientated rock choruses and then come over all Abba in the next breath. They look like they are aiming for mainstream favour, but at the same time it can all appear too complex, intellectual and, well, Brooklyn, for that to be a likely outcome.
You would wish them well though.
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