Longview review by our roving…
6th August 2008
My second gig at the Edge was Longview on Sunday night. As I started to watch from the back sipping my Irn-Bru 32, I took them for granted passing it off as just another chilled out band heavily influenced by The Verve and The Cure. Although, as they started getting warmed up and I stepped into the crowd it was much more. Although poncey to say, it had a great vibe.
The crowd, a bit more mature than that of Ratatat the previous night, were clearly huge fans singing the lyrics with eyes closed tight.
When the whole crowd started to sing along to ‘Further’ it was a highlight leaving a warm fuzzy feeling inside. But the best bit in my eyes was front man Rob Mcvey. He was pushing all the time to make this a totally personable gig, bantering with the crowd at every opportunity even taking on a heckler by joking:
“Pish, is that not Scottish for beautiful?”
There was trouble with Rob’s amp but he didn’t buckle under pressure and used the spare time to chat away to the audience asking opinions on the sound of individual instruments.
I felt lucky to see this band in such an intimate venue as Cabaret Voltaire, as it’s clear you can imagine them on much bigger stages with crowds of 5000 singing their songs instead of 70 happy people.
They are not a band to head bang to although no one told the bushy blond haired man in front of me! But they definitely aren’t ‘Pish’.
words: Fiona Gardner
photo: John Sault
