Gig review: Tribes, Oran Mor, Glasgow

Camden boys Tribes have wasted no time in following up their 2012 debut album Baby with the just released Wish To Scream. Their no-nonsense work ethic extends to playing live – Tribes aspire to tour like demons.

Tribes

Oran Mor, Glasgow

Star ratign: * *

Never mind changing the face of music, just switch on that rock’n’roll treadmill and watch them pound away. They are at least realists.

Yet there was a certain hunger in the sentiment of their set opener When My Day Comes htat suggested their ambitions might stretch further than a life as lads on the road. This turned out to be one of their more convincing musical salvos, its melodic momentum coloured with robust backing vocals.

At its best, their tuneful indie pop/rock sound draws influences from both sides of the Atlantic, coming somewhere between US garage acts such as the Replacements and louche British indies like the Libertines.

Frontman Johnny Lloyd has a scruffy rock’n’roll charm and whiny drawl, rising to a ragged yelp when he is getting worked up about something. If only the music always warranted the impassioned delivery. Rather, they settled too quickly into a laboured, mid-paced rhythm as they worked their way through the mawkish Corner Of An English Field, sub-Stonesy roots rocker Get Some Healing, ho-hum ballad Halfway Home and the effortful chug of Sons And Daughters to reach the downright sluggish existential caterwauling of Nightdriving.

Eventually, the band rallied for a couple of more lovable singalongs, We Were Children and How The Other Half Live, before proceeding to the next vital phase for the hard-touring combo – the bar.