Mogwai: The Notoriously Stiff London Crowd Went Out Of Its Mind
Scottish band Mogwai kicked-off Every Country’s Sun European Tour last October, after releasing their 9th album of the same title, on the 1st of September 2017. The 4-piece band (5 on stage) played a jam-packed O2 Academy in Brixton last Friday, in front of an ecstatic crowd.
Mogwai opened the gig with "Crossing The Road Material" - the 4th track of their newest album - with Stuart Braithwaite on the guitar, Dominic Aitchison on the bass, Barry Burns on the keyboards - and Alex Mackay replacing the departed John Cummings, along with Cat Myers deputising for Martin Bulloch on the drums.
The band carried on with the well celebrated "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead", followed by their latest single "Party In The Dark" - a fairly rhythmic track for which Mackay joined Burns on the keyboards, creating a rather uplifting atmosphere and quite an unusual dancy mood. Except for the latter, not many vocals were involved in the show, neither was their classic track "Take Me Somewhere Nice", which didn’t really seem to bother the frantic audience.
Instead, the fans were treated to a breathtaking 12-minute performance of "Mogwai Fear Satan". An emotional roller-coaster that caused many eyes to shut, teeth to grit, and fists to clench before releasing the pressure in an explosion of pure bliss. The song ended, and you could only think of going for another ride, to the point that even the notoriously stiff London crowd went out of its mind. Imagine a Glaswegian band asking Londoners to be more careful and not jump onto each other so violently… Of course you couldn’t, yet it did actually happen!
The post-rock band closed their outstanding performance with a 3-song encore including the brand new Every Country’s Sun, before leaving a very eager crowd in the good company of their loop stations. It’s only a shame the venue's infamous sound-system quality couldn't do enough justice to Mogwai’s music, even though the conclusion to the show was short-term deafness anyway! Regardless, what would you want to listen to after that?
Setlist:
Encore:
13. Every Country's Sun 14. 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong 15. We're No Here
