Review: Treacherous Orchestra - Glasgow ABC

ACCORDING to Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, as interviewed on BBC4 this weekend, the key to owning the biggest gigs is dynamics – having the skill to reel in a crowd with a whisper and floor them with a musical storm.

The 12-strong Treacherous Orchestra, by now firmly installed as Celtic Connections’ favourite Saturday night party band, are all over this approach, even appropriating a monolithic Page-style riff for their opening gambit, March of The Troutsmen.

Despite frontloading the set at this launch gig for their debut album, Origins, with some of their best-loved orgiastic anthems, there was plenty held in reserve from an ensemble who thrive on expertly calibrated changes in tone and tempo.

Fiddlers Innes Watson and Adam Sutherland, for example, switched in a flash from lyrical eloquence to hectic scurrying, their section of the “orchestra” bolstered on this occasion by three glam female fiddlers to temper the testosterone.

One of the joys of their cohesive but detailed sound – powerful, virile, epic yet also intimate – is the opportunity to pick out something new at every fresh encounter.

The simmering ambience provided by Barry “Spad” Reid’s guitar effects was just as potent as any of the lead instruments, while drummer Fraser Stone drives this beast of a band like a monster truck.

It was also an unexpected treat to spot Sir Elton John (or possibly bodhran player Martin O’Neill dressed up to look like him) making a cameo on the mischievous mayhem of encore Sausages.

Rating: ****