Music
The Vaccines, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
Jonathan Geddes
Four stars
The recent petition to remove Kanye West from headlining Glastonbury may have been tedious, but it did inadvertently raise the question of whether any modern rock groups might step up to being festival headliners in the near future. The Vaccines, with a No 1 album already under their belts, look a decent bet.
This showing, part of a tour around smaller venues to road-test new material, possessed arena-sized swagger in spades. If singer Justin Hayward-Young's onstage shouts (usually of the "make some noise" variety) and guitarist Freddie Cowan's poses weren't enough, they also came equipped with various videos as a backdrop, and, crucially, a ruthless confidence in how they motored through tune after tune.
It was no-frills stuff, and even an apparent shout-out to a marriage proposal before surf-tinted slowie Wetsuit, all arms in the air, barely paused matters. The foursome, here augmented by an extra guitarist, are regular targets of stick for a privileged background and the fact they're not exactly re-inventing the wheel musically, but they have a commendable knack for writing sharp tunes and for lifting pop inspiration in a satisfying way.
I Always Knew was Telstar colliding with a sing-a-long anthem, Wreckin Bar (Ra Ra Ra) offered up the Ramones for the selfie generation, and Melody Calling detoured towards dream-pop, while If You Wanna provided brawny indie.
The handful of new material didn't suggest that ear for catchiness was lost either - the stoner groove of Dream Lover indicated they've picked up tips from the Arctic Monkeys, Handsome was out-and-out chart-bait and 20/20 went from skittish rhythms to bulldozing power-pop. Maybe not festival headliners just yet, but expect arenas to fall sooner rather than later.
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