As Christmas approaches, Mogwai wrap Edinburgh’s Usher Hall audience inside their timeless post-rock opulence, weighing heavy against a meditative melancholy.
Hull’s Bdrmm provide the perfect support tonight as they reel in the crowd with a brutal assault of brooding shoegaze and incendiary textured waves which float in and out of focus as Ryan Smith and Joe Vickers attack their guitars with a criminal vigour.
Push/Pull, from 2020’s Bedroom recalls a 80s darkness as sparse, haunting drills lace Smith’s soothing vocal while Happy’s infectious driving bass builds, glimmering layers of guitar reverberating around the hall. As recent single Port jerks and broods, Smith’s vocals fall into eerie space, a caustic chaos ensuing. Originally set up as a solo project for Smith before expanding to the current four-piece, the frontman’s a joy to watch, manically lurching over his guitar, grating away at his innocent wee strings like they’ve got a really bad itch.
Although the set’s cut one song short due to technical issues, these guys put on an exceptional performance with a fearsome energy and echoes of Radiohead and Slowdive which will surely take them far. Like the main act to follow, their sound invokes a range of emotions, and with soaring instrumentals feeding our imaginations, watch out Mogwai!
It’s over 25 years since Stuart Braithwaite formed Mogwai in Glasgow with Dominic Aitchison and Martin Bulloch, while Barry Burns joined them few years later. Although other band members have come and gone, their sound hasn’t veered too far from its original path, with emotive but savage soundscapes, mostly instrumental, saturating their fans’ senses over ten albums and several TV and movie soundtracks, their haunting title track for Apple TV’s Black Bird one of my top tunes of 2022.
Tonight they kick off the set with this year’s Boltfor before pulling us deep into their back catalogue, salvaging gems such as the stripped back angst of 2010’s I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead and undulating nuances of 1997’s Helicon 1.
With no words to guide our thoughts on most numbers, once unleashed they become whatever we desire…if you can hear yourself think, that is. Of course if you’re familiar with their tongue-in-cheek song titles, this may lighten the load and direct your train of thought, 2017’s Don’t Believe The Fife one such song for me. Now I realise that’s not ‘Fifer’ but still, what’re you guys insinuating?
2021’s Mercury-nominated As The Love Continues was the band’s first album to reach no.1 in the UK chart. Tonight they showcase a few of its highlights including the sombre but uplifting Drive The Nail, its militant drums and fragile melody colliding headfirst with a frenzy of blazing guitars, the live proposition fuller and quite astonishing. More upbeat, Ceiling Granny lifts the mood, a simmering soup of smashed pumpkin and mashed neep harking back to the early days. Following on, Ritchie Sacramento enthrals the jubilant crowd as Braithwaite’s velvet-lined vocals weave through its lush layers of feedback, a meditative melancholy ensuing.
Taking us back to the beginning, the brazen onslaught of Like Herod completes the set, the band leaving us with a fuzz of white noise before returning for a two track encore. Christmas Steps, like the season itself, takes time to build up before smacking you in the face and swanning off into the winter mist, meanwhile the sprawling ferocity of last number My Father, My King sees Braithwaite’s meandering guitar bewitch the euphoric crowd before its crushing crescendo devours us whole, shaking the very foundations of the Usher Hall and giving those ornate crevices an early spring clean.
At that time of year when we’re instinctively reflective on the year gone by, Mogwai provide us with the perfect backdrop to reminisce and perhaps even look forward. And yeah, yeah it’s bloody loud as always, but any complaints will fall on deaf ears…even old Ebenezer Scrooge in the neighbouring Lyceum isn’t whinging, mind you he’s getting to eavesdrop for free…
Words: Shirley Mack @musingsbymarie
Pictures: Calum Mackintosh @ayecandyphotography