The 1975
Oran Mor, Glasgow, 27/5/13
As a band, there must be nothing scarier than facing a sell-out crowd when you know that a fairly decent proportion are there for one song and one song only.
This would be a fairly accurate description of Macclesfield’s lads’ The 1975’s situation on their current tour, as new fans enticed by radio hits Chocolate and The City cash in on the action alongside the old faithfuls who’ve been there since the band’s first EP release last August. There’s no denying that the lads have been turning heads for a few months now, but with a sold out crowd and a handful of recognisable tracks for the less-dedicated, this was a challenge to be faced head-on.
And Matt and the gang just about managed to pull it off.
The 1975 were armed and ready with a clutch of tracks laden with indie guitars, synths and dance-track-worthy grooves that managed to grab Glasgow’s attention. For a band who’ve only been headlining shows since the end of last year, the set is tight, running seamlessly for 50 minutes.
There’s an air of the 80s-esque anthem about the band’s work. Soaring guitar lines and synths merge to create something that’s surprisingly fresh, and a little bit different from the R’n’B and X Factor pop that dominates the charts these days.
As singer Matt Healy confessed himself, they were there to play a load of tracks from their new album, which won’t be released until September of this year. Latest release The City got the crowd singing along early on, while Girls, Money and You also kept the crowd happy, issuing the nod-along bass and memorable guitar lines that you’ve come to expect from a 1975 track, but one slower mainly-instrumental song – introduced simply as, “We’ve never played this live before,” – almost lost the attention of the crowd, taking it as a cue to head to the bar.
It wasn’t until hit Chocolate broke out mid-way through that Glasgow really got involved, screaming back the lyrics at the shaggy-haired frontman, and Sex, from the lads’ second EP of the same name, had girls racing towards the stage.
The majority of The 1975’s material so far has an infectious quality to it; it makes you nod your head along and wonder what else they can pull out of the bag. Yes, there were some tracks which lost the crowds’ attention, but there are also some genuinely brilliant songs in there which give these guys the potential to perform just as comfortably on a big arena stage as they do in the smaller venues they’re headlining now.
[rating=4]
