Tuesday 2 March 2010

Groove Armada, ABC Glasgow, 1st March 2010

Last night started with drinks in The Variety Bar, followed by a lovely dinner at Nanakusa (recommended) and then another drink in the good old State Bar before heading across to the ABC to catch Groove Armada.

Tuts and The Barrowlands will always be my favourite venues in Glasgow, but the ABC is sheer quality. It's been more than a few years since I last caught Groove Armada but their last 3 singles; 'Song For Muyta', 'I Won't Kneel' and 'Paper Romance' have all been top quality, so I thought I'd go and catch them again, despite my reservations about it being a Monday night and having to miss a game of fives.

There was only a DJ for support and upon entering the ABC shortly after 8pm I was surprised to see the place so empty. I knew it hadn't sold out, but Groove Armada always put on a show and have a good strong fan base. My worries soon eased as the place filled up and Groove Armada took to a smoke-filled stage just before 9.15pm to a near full-house.

An energetic and extremely fit blonde girl was on lead vocals for most of the tracks and bodypopped and danced her way through the entire set in a silver sparkly catsuit. 'Song For Muyta' was the second song in, swiflt followed by 'I Won't Kneel'. The band consisted of drums, guitar, bass, keyboards/synth and the lead vocalist, but it was MC Mike Daniels (AKA MAD) that promoted the biggest response of the night when he came out for the encore of 'Superstylin'.

In between 'I Won't Kneel' and 'Supertsylin' the band got Glasgow jumping to an instrumental version of 'If Everybody Looked The Same' and 'My Friend' promoted a mass sing-a-long.

'Chicago' put the groove into Groove Armada and new single 'Paper Romance' was proof that the band are still more than capable of producing inspiring and euphoric dance music.

Just before the kiss-off of 'Supertylin' came the beautiful 'At The River' with Andy Cato on trombone. It was a hands in the air moment before 'Superstylin' got the place absolutely bouncing. 

A great night.




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