Gig review: The Blow Monkeys

Published on Monday 7 September 2009 18:58

THE BLOW MONKEYS *** CLASSIC GRAND, GLASGOW

THE Blow Monkeys' trajectory during the 1980s was a fairly common one for bands of that era – after emerging as dark new-wavers, they evolved into a funky soul-pop band that occasionally bothered the higher end of the charts, before splitting in 1990.

Suckers for abundant smooth sax solos and a snare drum so reverb-y it sounds like it's being played in a railway tunnel, their music sounds pretty dated today. But good pop songs are good pop songs, and The Blow Monkeys' dapper frontman Dr Robert could definitely write them – smart, slinky things that, if they had the same arty credentials, might today see the band mentioned in the same breath as Orange Juice and their ilk.

They reformed in 2007 and their comeback record Devil's Tavern was warmly received. Seeing them live is as thrilling as watching a gig by a bunch of guys that look like your dad's mates gets, yet Dr Roberts's smoky croak retains an intrinsically cool feel, and their playing was slick and sophisticated.

That songs such as It Doesn't Have To Be This Way, You Don't Own Me and the band's nonchalantly smouldering signature hit Digging Your Scene mean a lot to some people of a certain generation was evident from the fact that practically all of the few bodies that turned out for this show were on the dance floor by the encore.