Gig review: The View, Edinburgh

For all but the least inhibited of hard-partying concertgoers, a set by Dundee’s The View can fairly be described as something of an endurance test – a raucous collision of jostling, pint-chucking, noisy rock’n’roll pitched squarely between unbounded celebration and barely contained violence.

The View had the audience onside from the start. Picture: Robert Perry

The View - Picture House, Edinburgh

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Yet on this occasion the unique and somewhat nerve-shredding atmosphere they create seemed perfectly suited. For as singer Kyle Falconer pointed out, this would most likely be the final concert in this venue’s five-year history following its sale to a pub chain.

Neither he nor much of the audience seemed too happy at the prospect, and his advice to sign the petition opposing the change was met with a wildly positive reaction. In fact, “wildly positive” just about sums up the hour and a half they were on stage for.

Barring some fringe ugliness which is sadly typical of a group like this playing on the Saturday before Christmas, the show was an example of remarkable unity between audience and the quintet onstage. During fallow moments when less familiar album tracks were played, the fans still went crazy in lieu of anything better to do.

During signature tracks like Skag Trendy, Wasted Little DJs and Same Jeans, meanwhile, the churning mass of bodies on shoulders and hands in the air looked like television coverage of a festival headliner crammed into a relatively small but not nearly past its best concert venue.

Things escalated during the frantic Superstar Tradesman and the almost clubby thump of Sunday, and as Shock Horror howled to a close it seemed as though the place had at least been seen off in style.