It's been more than two years since Fun.
last played Glasgow, in a sparsely populated Art School bar. They've upscaled their crowd somewhat since then, thanks to their huge, record-breaking hit We Are Young. While some seem to have flocked to the ABC this Monday night solely on the merits of the hits alone, most appear to have delved a bit deeper into the band's musical offerings. Fun.'s playlist often harks back to their 2009 album Aim & Ignite and the bopping crowd are clearly familiar with it, especially their should-have-been-breakthrough-hit All The Pretty Girls.
The set opens with Carry On, a gentle starter with a big chorus. But the party really feels like it's begun when the big, stomping intro of One Foot kicks in, with frontman Nate Ruess bounding around the stage, punching the air and making faces only a man completely consumed by his art would pull. His breathtakingly bold and reliable vocals are in a different league from almost all of Fun.'s contemporaries, while the passion and energy in his delivery place him comfortably among the world's best.
Guitarist Jack Antonoff is similarly gripping to watch, battling with a red guitar that appears at times to be alive and fighting back, such is the movement and the glorious wails that come from it.
Unsurprisingly, We Are Young gets an incredible reaction and a magnificent singalong, but it's Some Nights, which echoes out at the end-of-set closer that brings the biggest smile. You can see in Fun.'s faces that, even for a band of their recent calibre, the Glasgow crowd has left them a little stunned – and the feeling is mutual. Fun? What an understatement.
HHHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article