LIVE REVIEW: What a difference a tour makes. FAT GOTH would have made Motorhead sound average tonight, such was their riffage onslaught. Take a bow gentlemen, that sounded a bit special.
As a regular gig-goer and someone who has played in a band, and at the risk of sounding like an arse, it takes a lot to surprise me. OXES (from USA) remain my all-time favourite live band. MOGWAI touring ‘The Hawk Is Howling’ were as majestic as they were brutal. For any band to aspire to such giddy heights requires inspiration and perspiration.
Most bands will never reach that level of greatness. Denial does the rest.
Recent Fat Goth interviews have marked them out as a breath of fresh air in a UK music scene already reincarnating the rotting corpses of mainstream pop bands like JET with 2013 editions.
Hats off to main support band INDICA for sharing the bill and knocking out a solid, meat and potatoes hard rock set. They’re not trying to reinvent the wheel and whatever criticisms you could level at the band are the same ones you could level at a signed, internationally recognised outfit like Audioslave.
Not original in the slightest but fans of heavy riffs won’t care. If it’s a choice between Indica and listening to ‘Paradise City’ one more time on a jukebox, just let me know how much I have to chip in to get the stage built.
HIGHWAY TO HELL
FAT GOTH walked onstage around 10.15pm and launched into three or four songs back to back. I can’t remember how many exactly because it was like getting hit in the face by a tidal wave of loud, raw yet fiendishly clever riffs.
Andy Cairns would have been grinning from ear to ear if he’d heard them. The Therapy? fan in me kept thinking this is what the next level sounds like. This is all the influences Fat Goth have chatted about in interviews and then evolved them into something greater.
Metal in denial? Fuck genres. Fictional descriptions thrown about like progressive-metal, math-metal, punk-metal. It’s all lazy, inaccurate nonsense. This is pure genius at work. Teenage rebellion should sound like this.
It shouldn’t sound like it could open for The Vaccines, Vampire Bedwetters Weekend or Mumford and Sons. The producer of Jools Holland should be proper scared of putting this on telly for fear everyone might turn over. They were scared to put Elvis on TV. That’s right, Elvis was edgier for his time than most of NME’s best bands of 2012.
DUAL CARRIAGEWAY TO BRECHIN
There is a clear difference between a band on tour (too tired to be remotely nervous) and the quality of a one-off show (slight nerves). Everything is tighter, confidence is a given, and songs take on a life of their own.
At their core, great bands usually have a drummer that other bands would kill to have. Fat Goth are lucky enough to possess such a freak of nature in Mark Keiller. Having recently witnessed Sub Pop’s relentless noise-machine METZ, I can safely say that Mark could easily step in if they ever needed a replacement on drums. Even Steve Albini once said about him, “the kid can drum”. Tonight he’s playing every beat with the conviction Jason Bourne reserves for dispatching bad guys.
Talented bassists who know how to rock are not as common as you might think. The more talented they are, the more you suspect they’d rather be in a jazz band or in an outfit where they can get more of the limelight. Not so with Kevin Black. Fat Goth’s bassist plays complex riffs like he’s cracking computer codes against the clock, all while headbanging and throwing himself into each song. Half way through the set he breaks into an impromptu eulogy about Slayer and dedicates a song to Jeff Hanneman who passed away this week. It’s very fitting for a guy wearing a t-shirt that exclaims, “I hate slow songs.”
When the rhythm section is up there with the very best, it takes some serious balls to take up the mantle of frontman. Sure enough, Fraser “Dexter Morgan” Stewart still has the smile and deadpan wit that any serial killer would be proud of. Guitar riffs and notes breathe within their songs in a way I’ve not heard before, despite tour speed ensuring all songs are slightly quicker than normal. Eight gigs in eight nights means that any nerves are replaced by the most natural guitar playing I’ve ever heard from him. Weariness explains the occasional lack of microphone technique or it could be that he’s having too much fun kicking out the jams to care about singing every note.
There are many exciting up-and-coming bands in Scotland but for me, in 2013, nobody can touch FAT GOTH. They are in a class of their own and wouldn’t look out of place alongside any professional, interesting hard rock band.
After tonight only the likes of Clutch or Kvelertak are safe… for now.
Imaginary Kerrang! Score: KKKKK (FIVE Ks).
PHOTOGRAPHER ALLAN REID POSTED PHOTOS FROM THE GIG
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