Music

Faith No More, O2 Academy, Glasgow

Jonathan Geddes

Five stars

Even the support acts at Faith No More can be unconventional. Early arrivals to the gig were greeted with Bristol's finest, the Pop Group, tearing through furious sounding slabs of funk, to what can safely be described as a mixed reception. An odd booking, but one that neatly surmises Faith No More's ability to still eschew the obvious.

If initial forays after 2009's reunion veered towards hit-playing convention, then this current jaunt supporting new record Sol Invictus has returned to the unexpected. Few bands could even attempt a triple-whammy of Evidence's jazz-heavy croon, Epic's communal head-banging and the jaunty acoustic-flavoured melody of Black Friday, but dexterity among musical genres would mean nothing if they weren't good at it.

As a vocalist, Mike Patton remains sublime, capable of providing sashaying smoothness to their cover of Easy, making a quip about getting a certain body part deep fried while in Scotland and then sounding like he was newly emerging from the pits of Hell on Ugly In The Morning's wall of noise. Such fury contrasted with the fivesome's all white outfits and the floral arrangements surrounding the stage, which gave the impression of a new age clinic suddenly getting their rock on.

Sol Invictus itself provided evidence they've not blunted their ideas, with a playfulness around sturdy rock structures, including some pop undertones on a rousing Superhero. The noise was consistently furious, with the rhythm section of Mike Bordin and Billy Gould propulsive, but that quirkier nature delivered an added spark, including an ear-splitting Midlife Crisis that casually, effortlessly, dropped in a snippet of Boz Scaggs tune Lowdown halfway through. The Academy, and Glasgow, may not see better this year.