There’s something very reassuring about Glasgow’s Barrowland’s Ballroom. Frequently voted Scotland’s best music venue, with very good reason, it’s a no-frills venue (with thankfully the prices to match, I mean at how many nights out in the British Isles can you get a can of Coke for just £2 in 2024?) that basically sweats rock’n’roll from its very pores. Now: that might sound like a spectacularly silly statement – but only if you’ve never been there. It also marks having reached a decent level of success. The last time headliners Lankum played the Barras, as it’s known in Scotland, they were round the corner at the rather more intimate St. Luke’s, which has a capacity of 700. Tonight, Matthew, they’re headlining the 1900-capacity venue, which is sold out (and also marks the end of the very fine annual Celtic Connections’ series of gigs). That’s a big jump in nine months.
Lankum aren’t a new band, obviously. But their profile has grown immeasurably with the release of their fourth album False Lankum last year. It cleaned up in many end of year polls (including this esteemed title) and it was also their first album to make the UK album charts. Hopefully tonight’s support, fellow Dubliner Rachael Lavelle, will also see the same level of success. Last year she released her rather fine debut Big Dreams. Interestingly, she’s a rather different proposition live than on record: the album mixes Sia style-songwriting with Laurie Anderson-style experimentalism, and I mean that as a compliment. Live, it’s clearer to see her folk influences meeting with electronica. Armed with just her keyboard and effects, she has a haunting voice and beats that shake that famous sprung dancefloor. She finishes her well-received set with a a lovely version of ‘Perpetual Party.’ I’m sure she’ll be back on this side of the Irish Sea headlining before long.
Lankum have their roots in Irish folk, but they also have nods to drone and punk, and their wall of sound is actually closer at times to the likes of Swans or Sunn O))) than, say the Dubliners or the Chieftains. They open with ‘The Wild Rover‘ which appears on their third album, The Lifelong Day. This encapsulates what makes Lankum special – sure it’s a song you might well hear at a pub session, but this ten minute version is dark, beguiling and rather lovely, which is a pretty accurate description of Lankum’s work in general. It’s a cliché, but nonetheless one borne out by experience, that folk is a living breathing thing, and Lankum recognise that songs do not have to be preserved in aspic but given the chance to go in new directions.
The sound may well be matched with the band’s humour; they introduce ‘The New York Trader‘ by talking about whether it may well be a metaphor for those warmongers in Westminster, and indeed they do not hold back politically over the course of the evening. Their songs are often long, but never outstay their welcome. A particular highlight is ‘Go Dig My Grave’ though I would also mention the tribute to Sinéad O’Connor that is ‘Lullaby‘. And during the encores they rework the Pogues‘ sad tale of ending up a rentboy in Piccadilly that is ‘The Auld Main Drag‘ which they skillfully manage to make even more heartbreaking than the original. No mean feat.
Tonight’s gig was spectacular, and I’m still taking in just how wonderful it was.
Photo credit: Mike Melville
