poppedmusic

The Amazing Snakeheads

The Art School, Glasgow 11th October

Words: Gary Feeney

 
The Amazing Snakeheads have built up a strong reputation as a live act over the last year and a bit, and despite being no strangers to playing here in their (mostly) native Glasgow, there was a palpable buzz in the already hot and sweaty Art School air as a close-to-sell-out crowd waited patiently on the band making their later than scheduled entrance.

That buzz quickly changed to a minor frenzy as the Snakeheads finally took to the stage, setting the tone from the off with the menacing couplet Flatlining and I’m a Vampire sending a chill through the air at odds with the temperature in the room.

Frontman Dale Barclay prowled around the stage with a thrilling sense of malevolence (and, occasionally, a bottle of Buckfast), for all the world like a caged animal just waiting to be let loose; indeed, he made several breaks from his cage throughout the gig, making his first foray into the crowd during an excellent rendition of Where Is My Knife?.

The entire set consisted of songs you really wouldn’t fancy meeting down one of the many alley-ways in Glasgow’s city centre on a dark night, but amidst Barclay’s snarled vocals and the dark, driving bass-lines, it was the melodies of the likes of Here It Comes Again and Nighttime (greeted tonight by a chorus of Glaswegian crowd-favourite “here we fuckin go…”) which made this such an exciting show.

B-side Bullfighter was a late highlight, and as the set drew to a close with another stage-dive from Barclay, who proved himself to be an utterly captivating on-stage presence, I was left feeling that the only downside of the gig was that I’ve never got round to seeing them before.

This was a visceral, thrilling show from the first minute to the last, a show that seemed to encapsulate everything brilliant about live rock’n’roll music: it was dangerous, it was unpredictable and it was, above all else, hugely enjoyable. I certainly won’t be making the mistake of missing The Amazing Snakeheads again if I have the chance to see them…and neither should you.

The Amazing Snakeheads played:

Flatlining
Vampire
Knife
Swamp
Here It Comes
Storm
Nighttime
Bullfighter
Can’t Let You Go
Memories