I’ve been going to gigs for…well, a number of decades, and it’s always struck me as a matter of courtesy to try and catch the support act. Iona Zajac (formerly of Glasgow duo Avocet) recently released her debut EP Find Her In The Grass on Rod Jones of Idlewild‘s Post Electric Artists label. Appearing solo on stage, and accompanying herself on guitar, she has a gorgeously smoky voice and a brilliantly original style of songwriting. There’s a number of excellent songs that she plays – highlights for me include the acoustic ‘Summer‘ and the restrained but angry closer ‘Dilute‘ about looking back at your teens. Also fantastic are ‘Red Corn Poppies‘ which evolved out of a poem about a poorly stocked grocers where all the food had gone rotten and her version of an old Scottish folk song from 1592 -‘The Burning Of Auchindoun.’ My policy of catching the support act paid off in spades, and she was warmly received by the audience.
Arab Strap first appeared in 1996 with their astounding debut single ‘The First Big Weekend.’ Hailing from the central belt town of Falkirk, vocalist Aidan Moffat and guitarist Malcolm Middleton sounded like nothing before and barely little since. They released six albums over the next ten years, before splitting up in 2006. Having reformed in 2016, last year they released their first album in sixteen years, As Days Get Dark. It ranks up there with the best stuff they have ever recorded. When they released that debut single, in a limited edition of 700 copies, they can’t have imagined that they end up playing the Edinburgh International Festival, literally with their name in lights behind them.
The drum machine beats start up – and it’s them, with supporting guitarist, bass and drums. They tear into the album’s opener ‘The Turning Of Our Bones.’ One of many dark songs about sex, the opener might have been seen as a response to critics with its opening lines ‘I don’t give a fuck about the past/our glory days gone by‘ but being Aidan Moffat, the next couplet is the not entirely surprising ‘All I care about right now/is that wee mole inside your thigh.’ The crowd are delighted. It’s not always easy to hear the vocals (nothing to do with the band or sound engineer but people who Won’t.Stop.Talking) but Moffat is a wonderful storyteller. This is combined with their sound, a mix of indie, post-rock, electronica and a whole lot more besides. They don’t talk much to the crowd at first – after a few songs Moffat asks us ‘Y’aright, yeah?’ gruffly, in typically Scottish style (I’ve lived here for over two decades. Believe me, I know.) The new stuff sounds absolutely fantastic live, and we don’t get many old songs in the first set. ‘We’ll do encores later,’ Moffat tells one punter. After all, who needs too many of them when there’s songs like the commentary on immigration ‘Fable Of The Urban Fox‘; proof that it wasn’t always about relationships, alcohol and drugs but compassion, too. In their own way of course. As can be the way with these things, I’d forgotten just how great ‘New Birds‘ is.
Not surprisingly, the biggest cheer of the night is for ‘Weekend.’ The first verse is spoken, and then the gap after ‘we went through to the Arches…’ is teased out and it’s fantastic. You sense many of the crowd are transported back to that time period in ’96.
The three song encore does deal in older material. A fantastic three-song set where we get the anti-‘Weekend‘ ‘I Would Have Liked Me A Lot Last Night‘ about the worst hangover Moffat ever had, the fear of death because of sex ‘Packs Of Three‘ and concluding with a stripped-down ‘The Shy Retirer.’ It’s quite odd to hear an audience sing along with a line like ‘You know I’m always moanin’/but you jump-start my serotonin’ but then Arab Strap have never been like other groups.
Don’t fear the reformations.
