Gig review: The Big Pink, King Tut’s, Glasgow

FROM a slot on the NME Awards Tour two years ago to a barely half-sold King Tut’s on Tuesday night, London’s Big Pink appear to have regressed in the meantime. Part of the reason for this will be down to the departure of their wild and glamorous drummer Akiko Matsuura, of course, but that can’t be the full story.

There seems to be an excellent, possibly even seminal band lurking here, but the fog of oh-so-voguish electronic crunch and shoegaze howl they erect around themselves seems destined to put off any potential wider audience.

For those with a cathartic liking for sheer visceral racket, though, there was plenty to enjoy here. Velvet’s bassline was so heavy it shivered through the floor and Give It Up strutted along on a fog of icy ‘80s electro and almost rapped lyrics. Singer Robbie Furze (with programmer Milo Cordell the only remaining original member, another programmer and a replacement drummer having joined more recently) is a suitable conduit for this mix of styles, framed in a crossfire of red spotlights during the funereal 77, adopting a Bez-like nod during the rap-timed Rubbernecking and singing the yearning Eighties pop – with crunching bass added, of course – of Hit the Ground (Superman).

For the hardcore of fans still devoted to the Big Pink, they remain a satisfying and evocative live proposition, as evidenced by the fond reaction to their big song Dominos. Yet when the main set closer Lose Your Mind broke down into a vaguely familiar riff and you weren’t sure whether it was Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Happy House or Felix’s rave anthem Don’t You Want Me?, the dichotomy at their heart was revealed.

Rating: ***