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I previously mentioned that Yann Tiersen was playing in Glasgow, and last night I went along The Arches for the concert.

It wasn’t an auspicious start when we were redirected to another entrance by a barmaid who didn’t seem too happy with her lot. For some reason nobody other than her was informing people, and we wound our way around the gloomy back street to get in. It didn’t really leave me feeling very enamoured with the event management, either of the Tiersen tour or The Arches for seeming not to care about how visitors were being marshalled. That you were told in no uncertain terms that there was no re-admittence to the venue just left a sour taste in my mouth.

I was, thankfully, prepared for something a bit more than ’some nice piano music’, which I suspect most people associate with Yann Tiersen. I’d done some digging before the concert, and realised he was something of a more varied multi-instrument artist. This concert was to be electric guitar focused.

There was a rather poor warm-up act - who seemed both reluctant to be there and very little variety. Indeed they seemed to be manning the merchandise stall afterwards which perhaps explains a lot. That start didn’t help matters, nor did the long delay after they’d finished improve the mood (Not sure many folk noticed or cared that they’d finished).

Eventually - after a good few audience impatient clapping outbursts - Yann Tiersen and his group appeared, and off we went. Whilst there were some great tracks, and some familiar sounds and melodies along the way, it didn’t really do much for me. Large amounts of electric-guitar thrashing featured, and some of this was faaar too long and self-obsessed. Interesting ideas are one thing (and there were a few) but 15 minutes later of the same damn thing, you sort of get the point and relish some change. Discordant notes can be good too, and with a violin and fiddle played furiously (breaking strings along the way) alongside the guitar, it proved initially interesting. But time passed and my attention drifted elsewhere: There were some serious fans getting very carried away from where we were standing that provided some entertainment, all the more so as I failed to see quite why they were so excited. People watching can be so much fun, if rather puzzling…

So all in all, not what I’d expected and taken on it’s merits a rather lack-lustre concert with only a few tracks that stood out as half-decent. We left before the end as I had no intention of losing out on my return train ticket and having to fork out £15 for a taxi (after a queue in the rain), something I wouldn’t have minded doing if I’ve had a half-decent evening.

Perhaps it’s all down to the fact that, essentially, I was at a pop concert for an artist I didn’t really know. But even trying to be open-minded and enthusiastic about it (I’ve been to a few concerts where I’m unfamiliar with the artists, and generally enjoyed myself), I couldn’t take much away from it other than an overall feeling of ‘Meh‘.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Glasgow, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.