Gig review: Bis - Stereo, Glasgow

DURING their 1990s heyday, Glaswegian trio Bis were the cult and cartoony proposition of the city’s DIY indie scene with their frenetic fizzy pop and Manga-influenced graphics.

The Glasgow trio played a mixture of old a new songs to their Glasgow audience

Bis - Stereo, Glasgow

* * *

Twenty years on and reasonably fresh of face, they still bounced – clearly a Pavlovian reaction to the innate vim and charged tempo of their songs.

In the space of a trim hour, the reunited original trio of Sci-fi Steven, John Disco and Manda Rin, plus two, tore through “some old shit” and some tasty newer tracks too, such as the agit-pop Minimum Wage, powered by the kind of infectious rhythm to get even the most reluctant dancer’s leg twitching, and “the STV app song”, highlighting the earworm effectiveness of their catchy synthesizer jingles.

But there has always been more to their sound than hopped-up synth pop. A number of their songs drew on the punky angularity and new wave synthquake of the days when Top Of The Pops could throw up something odd and exotic on any given week (a fabled era currently being relived via BBC4 repeats).

Back in the mid-90s, Bis got their Top Of The Pops moment – famously, they were the first “unsigned” band to appear on the show with the sugar rush of Kandy Pop.

They rounded off this swift set with a hectic, spiky rendition of their best known song but there were also cheers for the gleefully schlocky electro punk of Secret Vampires and a lusty singalong to the pumped Eurodisco.

Seen on 09.01.15