After kicking off the tour in Newcastle last night, Aussie psychedelic rock outfit Psychedelic Porn Crumpets return to Glasgow for a night at SWG3 Galvanisers.
Support is in the form of Waldos Gift, an experimental instrumental 3 piece who last played the Hug and PInt and are now in front of a crowd 10x the size. Talking to people beforehand, expectations were mixed, they were not well advertised and the few who did search them out mentioned being underwhelmed. That turned around quickly when the music started however, what could have felt a bit lo-fo at home was gripping live. Drummer James talked about the formation of the band playing jam sessions every Wednesday for 3 years prompting them to jam a completely new 5 minute song for the Glasgow crowd. They had somewhat of a Math Rock sound and the closest comparison I could make would be the heydays of Foals. once they were done there was a lot of “surprised how much I liked that” faces.
Next up on stage joined by their trusty turtle were Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, “We have been waiting 2 years to come back” said frontman Jack as they ripped straight into it with “Bills Mandolin” then “Salsa Verde”. Some say would say to not review the crowd but it’s impossible to not be taken over by the wave of excitement, joy and general wildness coming from the crowd, huge pits barely have time to form before they are filled in with a crowd of jumping bodies, everyone is sweating, grinning and looking after each other. There is barely a break in the 90 minute set as we get hit with relentless riff after riff. “This one has been off the rotation for a while, but it made Danny (drummer) sad, it’s his favourite song, he only listens to Porn Crumpets” joked Jack as they introduced “Dependant on Mary”. 90 minutes sounded like a long set at the start of the night but if it felt like minutes had passed before the already hectic pace starts turning up with “Hymn for a Droid”, “Pax Ramona” before pretending their last song was “Another reincarnation”, nobody believed them.
“Terminus the creator”, “Incubator V2000” and “Cubensis Lenses” finished the set off after a brief encore “We love Glasgow, we get the best crowds here” from Jack which is flattery that can be heard at a lot of gigs (if you are from Glasgow at least), however tonight it does feel like the perfect storm of both a city and a band known for bringing out great fans and it made for an amazing, sweaty and life affirming show.
Words and pictures: Dale Harvey @daleharvey