Tonight I’ve got a Mogwai gang: two of us have over ten years’ experience, one’s a recent convert and the other is a beginner. We arrive half way through the first band, Cloth. The sound isn’t brilliant, but it’s enough that we can hear a lovely voice, velvety and thick, and some rich harmonies, though we’re not sure where those are coming from. We can’t hear the guitars very well, despite taking up residence near the mixing desk, thinking we’ll get the best sound there, but it’s enough to make us decide to check them out online when we get home.
Kathryn Joseph is next. It’s just her and what looks like a Fender Rhodes, to my middle-aged distance vision. I enjoy the intricate Mogwai-style melodies and harmonies (are there covers?), and Friend 1 comments that she has a lot of presence for just one person and a piano. Friend 3 says something about her being a bit Kate Bush and maybe a teeny bit Tory Amos, even Queenadreena. Not the music, she clarifies, but the vocal.
‘We’re Mogwai from Glasgow Scotland’ (yes, he says it with no commas, just like on Special Moves), and then we’re straight into a boiling set that mixes tracks from the new album with familiar favourites. While I’ve always thought of Mogwai as a band you feel through your feet, I don’t get the full physical force of the sound until we’re a good few songs in, when it starts to get me in the chest. I’m also pretty sure the beer I’m holding starts to respond, but maybe that’s wishful thinking or the previous beers.
The light show is increasingly articulate as the show goes on, and seems to get more complex as we progress through the set. There are glowing tube lights at right angles, which make me think of Dan Flavin, and big washes of blinding, full-beam light from what looks like a rack of headlights facing the audience.
While we wait for the encore, we dissect just how Mogwai are heavy as fuck and in fact, heavier than most very heavy metal bands. It’s that wall of sound, says Friend 1 (the beginner), and talks about wanting more guitar effects pedals, even though he has already run out of space on his pedal board. Friend 1 and friend 3 (over ten years’ experience) are getting into a more detailed discussion when the music starts up again.
The band don’t go for discussions, beyond jolly thank yous to the audience – they stick to the music. The encore starts gently, but soon we’re into ‘Hunted by a Freak’ and finally ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’, the latter’s quiet-before-the-storm section feeling very long and very quiet, but maybe it’s just because we’re anticipating the forthcoming explosion. Everyone here probably knows the drill, but it never gets any less thrilling.
Review by Hannah Boothby with help with some friends – thanks to Ian, Mario and Caroline Low.
Mogwai’s world tour continues.
Mogwai website | Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Kathryn Joseph website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube
Cloth website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
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