Alcest and Anathema in Glasgow

Once more it's a trip to the North West for the first gig since Green Man and surprisingly the first proper gig of the year. A new venue as well - The Garage - to see Alcest and Anathema, both bands I've seen before. This would be the fourth time for Alcest and the second for Anathema. Another one of those early starts, Alcest would be on-stage at 6.45. We arrived early and decided to head down the front, the venue was about half full, maybe 300 people in. Alcest arrived and launched in to Kodama, it should have been a great start but the sound was awful... were we too close? maybe. Things never really improved and it was only during the quieter moments (Autre Temps) that the vocals were discernible - the drums and bass were overpowering pretty much everything, even the guitars sounded lost. Have to say it was something of a disappointment, enjoyable but not great. Such a poor sound didn't bode well for Anathema who rely on clear vocals and harmonies for their sound.

Rory and I wandered to the bar at the back of the venue for the obligatory pint of Joker IPA and a Red Stripe, drinks in hand we decided to head to the balcony for Anathema. After what seemed like a long wait they came on-stage and immediately ran in to problems as Vincent Cavanagh's (lead vocals and guitar) rig just packed in. Ahh the joys of a first night on tour! Much scurrying around the stage from their guitar tech eventually coming up with a 'fix'. Opening with San Francisco off new album The Optimist Untouchable Parts 1 & 2 - one of my favourite tracks by them, they'd sorted everything out and went on to play a great set - you can view the setlist here.

This clip of Anathema performing Thin Air is from this summers Download Festival.

 

So why did Anathema sort out the sound issues and Alcest not, I guess it's got to be down to your sound engineer. Perhaps a supporting band don't have the funds to take their own engineer on tour with them and they rely on the headliners or venues engineer. I'd suggest after this experience that a band should make finding a good sound engineer a top priority. There's no point in having a great set of songs if your audience can't hear them properly. I don't expect (or want) a replication of the studio sound but with the technology available poor sound at a gig isn't really acceptable. Alcest have been getting better and better with each album and gig, but this one I feel let them down. It won't stop me seeing them again though. Hopefully next time they'll headline and their sound engineer will know his stuff!