The New Pornographers @ ABC2

Last night me and pretty much all of the ‘Pish readership (Tommy and Nicola) went to see The New Pornographers at ABC2. Surprisingly we were there in time to see the two support bands as well.

First up were Glasgow’s Music and Movement. They were awful, tuneless rubbish. The girl singer seemed at a loss for what to do most of the time and couldn’t even really work her tambourine. The best thing they did was a 5 minute outro that just seemed like a jam in the rehearsal studio.

The main support, Your Black Star, were more accomplished but probably less interesting. Their set mainly passed me by.

It was slightly disappointed that Neko Case wasn’t playing with TNP. She has a new solo album out in a few months and she seems to be playing solo shows at the moment. However her replacement Kathryn Calder of Immaculate Machine filled in quite ably.

They kicked off with Twin Cinema and battered through most of that album. The sound wasn’t all that great with feedback punctuating all the way through Use It. However they soldiered on and provided an entertaining hour or so.

The highlights for me were Slow Descent into Alcoholism, Bleeding Heart Show, Letter From an Occupant and their second encore when they wandered back onstage after all the lights and the mix tape had gone back on. After shouting down a lot of audience requests they finished with The Body Says No and From Blown Speakers.

On the whole they were really entertaining and played everything I would have expected, but I felt perhaps the sound in the venue curbed my enjoyment a wee bit. They maybe have too big a sound for such a small room.

In addition to my two below, here’s another couple of photographs from the show.