Primal Scream at ABC Glasgow

Primal Scream's light shines on

Primal Scream still have it in abundance. I never doubted it, but it was nice to get it rammed down my throat at the ABC in Glasgow last night.

The Scream Team delivered a blistering set of rock ’n’ roll, electro, dance and punk rock, leaving Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes’ hometown in raptures.

Hannah Marsden from The Snides joined the relatively stripped back band (only 1 guitarist) on stage for much of the show last night and she looked incredible. Dressed in a pop star dress with immaculate hair, she shocked and shimmied alongside Gillespie and brought a new dimension to the live show.

100% or Nothing followed by the single Where The Lights Get In opened proceedings. The reaction to these new songs was extremely positive, with many around me going crazy and singing a-long.

The Primal’s then thrilled the crowd with a double dose of rock ’n’ roll in the form of It’s Alright, It’s OK and a ferocious punked up and funked up Jailbird. They cranked it up a notch and flew threw Accelerator at breakneck speed. Gillespie looked in his element.

Highlight from the new album Chaosmosis was When The Blackout Meets The Fallout - under 2-minutes of pop-punk-electro with Gillespie and Marsden singing together and looking like they were having the time of their lives.

Primal Scream turned a Wednesday night into the weekend, blasting through Kill All Hippies and following it up with Shoot Speed, Kill Light. Two incredibly powerful tracks with Simone Marie looking super cool on bass and taking real pleasure in firing out the ferocious riffs.

Cry Myself Blind was beautiful. A sober and straight Gillespie sounded better than I have ever heard him. Innes was outstanding on guitar throughout the night, his riffs and licks on this old fave were soulful and tugged on the heartstrings.

Golden Rope from the new album merged straight into Swastika Eyes and the place erupted. Bobby Gillespie doesn’t smile that much, but he delivered some beautiful grins towards Innes, Simone and to the crowd.

The rock ’n’ roll gem that is Country Girl caused mass pogo-ing, dancing and singing in the crowd with chants of ‘here we, here we, here we f**king go’ when Bobby slowed the band down. Gillespie was visibly moved by the Glasgow crowd then changing the chant to ‘Bobby, Bobby, Bobby f**king G.’

Rocks swiftly followed, still sounding fresh and vital 22-years after release. It was fantastic to hear electric guitars cranked up to the max at the ABC last night and some good time rock n roll.

The encore started with a blissful I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have before Bobby said ‘and then Andrew Weatherall and some chemicals turned it into this’ and the place went suitably bananas for the classic that is Loaded. It was great to get lost in the music and dance like there was no tomorrow.

Movin’ On Up kept the high going and then we were all off into the Wednesday night air to cool down and discuss Electric Fields and Kelvingrove Bandstand.

Keep on keeping’ on, keep on keeping’ strong

Primal Scream play;

Kelvingrove Bandstand and Ampitheatre - 11th August (tickets on sale on Friday)
Electric Fields - 26th-27th August (tickets on sale now)