SONS AND DAUGHTERS ****
ABC, GLASGOW
HOGMANAY gigs are such strange events: on the one hand, you've got a ready-made, up-for-it audience who will cheer you to the rafters; on the other, you've got a bunch of people who are so drunk that you could play Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep and they'd still hail you as a rock god.
Even stranger, then, that Sons and Daughters should opt for taking the stage at 12:30am, beyond the high point of the evening and when the audience was, perhaps, beyond the point of caring. Nevertheless, the band seemed intent on taking no prisoners and relied on sheer volume to get their point across.
Singer Adele Bethel seemed almost oblivious to the capacity crowd's cheers as she whipped her way through the set, while Scott Paterson, David Gow and Ailidh Lennon laid down the sort of percussive barrage that the likes of Primal Scream need a studio and a roomful of amps to create. It was impressive stuff and totally at odds with the soporific 1980s Australian soap opera they're named after, but throughout the set there was an undeniable sense of a group not entirely comfortable with the event, keeping between-song chat to a minimum. And, strangely, for what was essentially a good-time event, they decided to test-drive some new material rather than stick to numbers from their last two albums, The Repulsion Box and Love the Cup.
But these numbers stuck firmly to their shrieking distortion, tom-tom-heavy blueprint - equal parts Nick Cave circa Birthday Party, The Cramps and Johnny Cash - and so they were cheered with equal fervour. A good show under difficult circumstances.
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