M83 at King Tuts, 26/10/08

26th October 2008 - M83 at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut

It's not very often that I find myself 'gigged out', but after two gigs and my brothers 30th within a week I found myself driving my friend Ian and I to King Tuts for the synth/guitar noisemasters called M83. I was quite pleased that I was driving as it was chucking it down in Glasgow. We parked right outside Tuts and hopped in and up the stairs in plenty of time for M83 starting, although we did miss the support bands.

 I have to confess that I only own one M83 album. The rather excellent 'Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts'. There was a bank of synthesisers and keyboards centre stage and Anthony Gonzales (formerly known as Nicolas Fromageau) was soon twiddling, teasing and tweaking knobs (no jokes please) and was joined by a female who soon started doing the same. They were joined by a drummer who based himself behind a perspex screen and it soon became difficult to know what was being played live and what was being played from a computer.

 Regardless of that the sound quality was fantastic. Gonzales occasionally picked up a guitar and overloaded with effects he blasted the crowd with soaring melodies. There was very little between song banter but the crowd cheered heartfully between songs. It's difficult to describe M83's sound. An easy way out would be to compare it to My Bloody Valentine and teher are certainly similarities. But it's landscapes and layers of sound, the search for something fresh and new, something that no-one before has discovered. I guess that search for a new sound is why 300 people braved a cold, wet and windy night to come out to King Tuts to see and hear the band live.

Conclusion - It was a good gig, not great, but very good at times. It would probably have been better of the crowd wasn't packed in like sardines and had space to dance to some of the more grrove based tunes that M83 delivered and for the purists could certainly argue that not everything was live. But for £10 - a good night out