The Rakes

Wednesday day night brought another gig, this time the ever fabulous Rakes at the QMU in Glasgow. The band didn't come alone though, this time they came with 3 support bands; White Rose Movement, Duels and Switches.

Taking each band as they came we started with Switches. Personally I thought they were really poor, nothing original at all and even worse than that they reminded me of Hard-fi; a band I will never understand the popularity of save for the irritatingly good Hard to Beat. I don't see them becoming much mostly because of some terrible lyrics. But if my opinion means very little to you click the link and see their myspace where you can have a listen.

Next up were Duels. Posted on this lot before. They have some good tunes in that set of theirs just a shame some don't come across as well as they do on record. They ended on the excellent Potential Futures which I've posted before but as I think its so damn excellent and I can't think of any track to make you like the band more than it, I'll post it again. Sorry for the laziness but if you didn't get it last time then I really suggest you give it a try.

Duels - Potential Futures

Duels were followed by the band I had not seen before and was perhaps most excited about seeing before hand, the excellent, White Rose Movement. The band came on looking as painfully fashionable and London-esque as you can imagine. they kicked off in fine style with a vigour and style that could have easily fooled you they were the headliners. They played all the singles I've come to love so far including Love is a Number which would be outstanding in anyones setlist. They somehow didn't get the reaction from the crowd I had expected but they did a fine job and finished on their heaviest, but still danceable, Alsation. Definitly a band to keep an eye on, you can find the album on all the networks at the moment and its really worth a listen.

White Rose Movement - Alsation

But the night was in the end all about one band. Before the gig I was lucky enough to sit next to the Rakes new keyboard player, Ethan, in the bar and had a word with him. He said the band felt like they needed something to make the sound on stage complete and so this was the first tour that they had employed a keyboard player. I hadn't expected it to make such a difference. The band came on to, if memory serves me right, Terror!, which went down excellently. Singer Alan Donghue pogo'd about all night with his ever unique moves and really got the crowd alight. Every song was a treat and even the new tracks that they mocked wouldn't go down so well, went down a treat( see last week for a link to new single All to Human). This was the fourth time I've seen the band but by far the best. Any other band would look like they were going through the motions having toured for the last year pretty much non-stop but not the Rakes, far from it. Simply brilliant throughout, although slightly hampered by sound at the QMU the Rakes seem to be looking fresher than ever. What struck myself and a friend who had been at the Arctic Monkeys last week, was simply that this band have better tunes, better attitude and simply better onstage. I have no idea why this band haven't made all the headlines yet but on the basis of the new material I don't think it will be long. Still, I've got a soft spot for the old ones so in a Tommy Shots first, and to celebrate a band really at the top of their game, here's two tracks from the boys. Enjoy.

The Rakes - Terror! (Extended Mix)

The Rakes - Work Work Work (Pub Club Sleep)

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In a totally unrelated post and really just to celebrate the return of one of my favourite bands, here is another Yeah Yeah Yeahs track. This was a track that I got into when the first album came out by getting this mp3 of the band. It was about the time I was getting some of their Unitard tracks, acoustic versions of their main stuff, such as the amazing version of Our Time. This track is apparently going to feature on the new album in some form and I am very exicted by that, it was simply too good to go unreleased although it is strange for such a good track to be unused for the first album. The track certainly makes a lot more sense when you have heard the style of the new track Gold Lion and the overall idea they are going with. As you may realise when you play the track has been ripped by someone other than myself but after that annoying intro, its all good.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts (Live Acoustic)

Later...