Gig review: Walter Schreifels, Glasgow

WALTER Schreifels, he told us, had been roaming the streets of Glasgow searching for inspiration for a blog on great Walters from history.

King Tut’s

***

“What did Walter Scott do?” he asked of his nonplussed crowd. “He invented Scotland?” Then there was Walter Raleigh, or whoever “the guy with the traffic pylon on his head” is.

In a thinly populated gig bulked out by members of his support bands, in which New York hardcore punk icon Schreifels appeared with just a mic and an electric guitar, such motormouth chatter was required to fill the tuning gaps, at the very least.

In a very different show from the one with which fans of his plethora of bands – most notably Rival Sons – will be familiar, this set was low-key and in many ways somewhat half-formed. Bookended by extensive chunks of chatter, he offered covers, old favourites and new work, the latter group featuring some true work in progress material – one song had grown from two verses to three since the last time he had played it. It was ad hoc and patchy, and occasionally the younger-looking-than-his-middle-aged-years singer went off on ludicrous tangents about bees (as prologue to a mean version of blues standard I’m a King Bee) and how drop-D guitar tuning takes you to the place “where grunge lives”.

However, when it came together his set was air-punchingly powerful, from High Hope to Rival Schools’ anthemic Good Things to the downbeat Landmine Spring. Citing his youthful crush on Clare Grogan, he affirmed his longstanding love for Glasgow. The feeling was mutual.