So what do you do when you’ve played arguably the most iconic gig of your career, selling out one of the best venues in your home town, bringing great support and leaving the audience absolutely in raptures about how good it was?
Well, if you’re Bleed From Within then you do it again the next night. Despite their own admitted misgivings, the team at Triple G who book gigs across Scotland convinced Bleed From Within to book themselves two nights at The Barras. Their faith outweighed the band’s uncertainty (and underlines how non-egotistical BFW are), and here we are. After Lindsay’s review of the Sunday night, I’m left to try and tell you how good or otherwise the Monday night ended up being.
Both opening acts were pretty new to me, so I had no expectations. Certainly I didn’t expect find a band as good as Great American Ghost kicking the night off with an audience reaction you’d expect from a headliner. Fists were up, heads were banged, and a huge pit formed… and all this by the time they had only just started playing. While I know a few dozen people will have been here last night, I can only assume that GAG have a bit of a following already. Based on their performance it’s 100% justified.
With only seven songs to play with, some bands will find they’re just about getting the crowd going by the time they’re halfway through, but not this lot. Halfway through the set mad frontman Ethan is in the crowd, surfing like a pro while continuing to belt out lyrics. The rest of the band play on, almost like they’re humouring him, and the crushing riffs don’t stop. The dancefloor is awash with spilled pints and sweat by the time they get to the end of their set, but not before Ethan has waxed lyrical about what great guys tonight’s hosts are.
He’s preaching to the choir, but the audience lap it up, and the crowdsurfers continue right up until the band finish their goodbyes. An absolutely intense set, and one of those where you wonder how the others on the bill will manage to follow it. A good job that BFW are as good as they are, or they may have struggled.
After The Burial, though, are next and provide a buffer before the headliners. Not quite as much to my taste as Great American Ghost, there’s no denying that they put on an equally energetic performance and the Barrowlands audience, once again, made it obvious that they were very much up for it this evening.
The band were short one broken-armed member, bassist Adrian having to sit things out though he was very able covered by Anthony and Grayson from Great American Ghost. This kind of filling in summed up the tour ethos that was detailed by singer Anthony Notarmaso as well as GAG’s Ethan before him. A staggering amount of good, friendly violent fun was a constant throughout their set, right up to Notarmaso announcing “the final breakdown” when all the bits of Hell that hadn’t already broken loose did so.
With a new album on the horizon (from which “Hum From The Hollow” was played), After The Burial are guaranteed a warm response should they pass through Glasgow again on any future touring schedule.
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It says a lot about the support bands that, despite the obvious draw of tonight’s headliners, they got such a fantastic reaction from the crowd. The venue was pretty much full by the time Great American Ghost were halfway through their set, so very few people were playing the “pfft, we’re too cool for support bands” act. Those last 7 or so people may have snuck in late and found themselves stuck at the back of a rammed venue as Bleed From Within came on stage to the loudest cheer I have ever heard at the Barras.
What followed was roughly 90 minutes of carnage (quite literal at one point). This is, I think, the fifth time I’ve seen BFW and the first time I’ve seen them headline. From opening for Megadeth at the Academy, doing the same with Amon Amarth a decade later, their incredible set at Bloodstock in 2021, and then a year back when they blew Slipknot off the stage at the Hydro, Bleed From Within haven’t actually improved in my view. They’ve always been amazing live. It’s just taken the world a stupidly long time to figure this out.
While the band’s sound has evolved somewhat, and definitely become arguably more accessible without losing its bite, their live show has never been anything short of intense. Frontman Scott Kennedy is the obvious focal point as he bounds around, screams, waves, prompts and basically acts like the singer most bands wish they had. You only need to draw your eyes away from him for a second to look at the smiles on the faces of the other band members who are obviously enjoying their second stint on the Barrowlands’ stage every bit as much as he is.
There’s no need to go through every song on the set, there are highlights and talking points aplenty without that. Scott admitting that he was barely keeping it together in his first speech to the audience after the opening couple of songs had a tear in the corner of my eye. This show, this pair of shows, obviously mean so much to them and to hear him detail that Triple G had to browbeat them into booking the two nights speaks volumes about the whole band.
The venue crowdsurfing venue was beaten to a pulp (1032, as stated by guitarist Steven Jones) and that’s not surprising as I don’t think there was a moment without someone crawling towards the pit at head height (including the inevitable banana-man who Scott gave up and shook hands with between songs when he was trying to give a heartfelt speech). The pit was as big as I’ve ever seen at this venue, walls of death erupted, and there was even a “crouch and jump” moment that Kennedy admitted they may have stolen from Slipknot.
A quick shout out to the lovely Hannah Boulton whose voice I heard on a couple of the songs before realising that she was actually on stage, not just a backing tape. She’s been on the last three of BFW’s albums and to include her on these dates was a great touch. It turns out she’s also part of the Frop Leap Studios live setup!
During “Levitate” came a sudden cry from Kennedy of “Stop the gig!” as he’d spotted that something wasn’t right. Someone was on the floor in the pit and they hadn’t got back up again. The important thing first – they’re fine. We’ve spoken to them (it took us two days to track them down) and BFW have promised them a merch pack to make up for them missing half the show. Our own huge and heartfelt thanks to everyone on that dance floor to indicated there was a problem, who made space, and who helped the guy out (including, no surprises, the well-loved Pit Troll). And of course the first aid staff on site. Like car insurance they’re constantly there and often forgotten about but, bloody hell, are you glad you have them when you need them.
As a result of the stoppage, the show ran on a little at the end so I don’t believe any songs were cut. Hopefully the band weren’t fined a la Guns n’ Roses for breaching curfew! Certainly the venue would have been burned to the ground if they hadn’t been able to finish with “The End of All We Know” and “In Place Of Your Halo”, replete with additional marching drum and bagpipes.
Even once the band had departed, the Barrowlands rang out to a couple of thousand voices singing “Loch Lomond”, drowning out the recorded version coming out of the speakers. A truly emotional show, an incredible one, and evidence that BFW are a band that you absolutely have to catch live.
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Photos by Jack Larmour
