The Interrupters @ Glasgow Barrowland
Into the bleak midwinter of January, straight from San Diego, The Interrupters and their brand of ska punk was nearly two hours of pure joy. A packed crowd lapped it up, the pit was huge fun and the band fronted by Aimee Interrupter played right into it and seemed to love every minute back.
Frank Carter @ Glasgow Barrowland
Another huge crowd, the famous venue rammed to the rafters and Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes blew the roof off. Trademark Frank – inciting the crowd surfers, roaming right to the back with the mic and getting the whole place bouncing with slow build ups breaking into the heaviest of riffs. Goosebump-inducing stuff.
Menzingers and Spanish Love Songs @ Glasgow QMU
A dream ticket – two of the best bands on the circuit. SLS support slot with a perfectly-pitched set on just their 2nd Scottish appearance, combing new material from Brave Faces Everyone – just a week old at that point - and Schmaltz. SLS produced for me the album of the year. The Menzingers just continue to impress whenever and wherever they play. Their set is packed with classics that have the place moving, although nothing from their earlier more jagged-edged albums.
Menzingers – Hello Exile and From Exile
If Hello Exile was a more mature sounding Menzingers, From Exile, produced once their tour came to a premature end in New Zealand, was the stuff of brilliance. New and unexpected, almost folksy in parts, acoustic twists on Hello Exile’s songs make these two albums two of the very best, with the storytelling really coming to the fore on the latter. Last to Know into Strangers Forever on both albums is THE perfect Menzingers double-tap.
Menzingers live stream from Studio 24
Even in a year of few actual live gigs, a 2am live stream in September from Philadelphia has got to be special to stay up for. The full band rigged up in their studio doing a full-set might be risky – but the sound quality showed what a brilliant-sounding band The Menzingers have become. You know it’s good when it’s still buzzing around your ears 48 hours on.
Biffy Clyro – Celebration of Endings + Barrowland live stream
Launched in August, a huge breath-taking sonic boom of an album, Biffy took over pretty much everywhere in support. Impressive given everyone was pretty much locked down. They also performed live in their spiritual home, the Barrowlands, on an album play-through streamed to fans. Spectacular listening and viewing. The sweeping orchestral grace of Space coupled with raucous noise of Cop Syrup sum this whole album up nicely.
Hause – Patty and Paddy + Kick
For punk legend and constant tourer Dave Hause, 2020 might have been an understandably frustrating year, but it was one in which he produced some stunning noise. Kick, his full band album with The Mermaid, firmly positioned him as one of the most important performers out there. With Patty and Paddy, he paid tribute to two of his favourite lyricists – Patty Griffin and Patrick Costello, from opposite ends of the musical spectrum. Two beautifully-produced EPs, beautifully highlighted the winning combination of Hause’s voice and the guitar work of his brother Tim. Songs brought to life brilliantly during Hause’s live stream with buddy Chuck Ragan at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall.
A riot of an album. All the punk moves from stalwarts TLA you would expect but delivering more with every listen. A really impressive sounding piece of work from a band who need to get back to Scotland to give this a blast live.
Bush – The Kingdom
This one passed me by until very recently when an acoustic
version of The Kingdom surfaced. Listening to the full album, I don’t know why
it did. It’s massive-sounding, heavy on huge guitar riffs and the vocals of
Gavin Rossdale tie it all together. Don’t miss out on this one.
Brian Fallon – Local Honey
Another solo gem from Fallon. Eight songs which are more rooted in alt-Americana than The Gaslight Anthem punk anthems (evidenced by its frequent selection in end of year C&W best of lists), but which still carry strong hooks and lyrics ensuring fans of the latter hang on every word this man writes. Stripped back, emotional and raw. Again, without the benefit of touring, Fallon has turned to live stream performances to bring these songs to fans and when you see them performed on just an acoustic or piano in his home studio it really underlines how impressive he is as a song-writer.
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