Gig review: Mark Stewart, Glasgow King Tut’s
On this outing, he was accompanied by friends old and new, including Pop Group guitarist Dan Catsis and master mixologist Adrian Sherwood controlling, manipulating, playing the sound desk like another instrument. His new rhythm section have big shoes to fill but the size of the bassist’s board of effects pedals showed that he meant business. The belligerent funk of opener Nothing Is Sacred was an energy blast, but turned out to be mere gentle preamble compared to the following Liberty City, which delivered a real renegade soundwave.
A hefty chunk of the set was drawn from the new album. His petite co-vocalist – looking tinier still next to Stewart’s hulking frame – attacked her role with balletic steel, fearlessly playing surrogate to Massive Attack’s Daddy G and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry on the creepy Apocalypse Hotel and proto-dubstep of Gang War respectively.
Such is Stewart’s artistic currency that these brand new songs held their own next to the tightly coiled controlled explosion of old favourite Hysteria.
Rating: ****