Extreme Listening Mode!

Kyle Falconer - Not covered in piss (Nov 2009)

When it comes to music, the relationship between suppliers and customers is far different to that in the real world. There are responsibilities on each side to be adhered to; the transaction isn’t finished the second the fan hands over the money. Both sides invest a lot more in to this relationship than Tesco and it’s customers do. This is a nuanced, subtle partnership which has evolved over fifty years of popular music.

Simply put, both have a role to play and tasks to perform if this is going to work out the way it is intended to. You can argue about the definition of those roles, where they begin and end and what is and isn’t acceptable. But although tonight gives cause to re-assess who does what in the whole artist/fan question, most people would probably agree that it’s definitely a no-no for a fan to piss in an empty pint pot and chuck it at the band.

Those old enough to remember will recall that The Smiths performed a yearly tour of small Scottish venues, a tradition that The View have taken to in the last few years. These are generally held in tiny venues – cue massive ticket scalping – but they are cheaper than standard View shows and the band use them to try out new material, have a laugh and then everyone gets a chance to see them do the ‘proper’ tour later in the year. Tonight sees them in the Bongo Club, a small and really rather decent little venue in Edinburgh.

Seeing The View can be very much a lottery; capable of shows which border on the incendiary, they are equally always capable of turning up in no fit state to perform and treating the audience to shows which are simply wretched. This is where The View have in the past failed to hold up their end of the agreement; it may be a good story to tell the NME about playing a show where you couldn’t strum your guitar properly, and it may be just the one show on a tour, but it’s the one show that particular audience is going to and it’s simply the equivalent of telling them you couldn’t give a toss about them.

No problems on that score tonight. Starting with ‘Wasted Little DJ’s', they ask for the crowds patience on new tracks, but they needn’t worry. Pretty much everything is received rapturously, in particular the storming ‘Tragic Magic’. The debuting material continues the almost-folksy (Scottish Division) path they dabbled in on Which Bitch? Indeed. mixed with their ever-present pop leanings, several tracks resemble Freddie and the Dreamers covering Steeltown by Big Country. This is a good thing.

So, everything joyous, hunky-dory high-fives all round. But ahhh, no. It would be remiss not to mention that the band attract a fair amount of, shall we say, salt-of-the-earth fans to their shows. Viciously necking booze and often disappearing to toilet cubicles, they shout ‘here we f*cking go!’ a lot and have hair which resembles a frightened hedgehog who has let himself go. They are, in the main, irritating but harmless. Except when they aren’t.

The chucking of drinks at bands is tiresome and moronic at the best of times. Given the amount of electrical equipment up there, it’s also dangerous. Venues warn darkly of consequences for engaging in the practice, but never seem to act on it. The band have warned a section of the crowd who seem to find it the most hilarious thing in the world to lob almost empty plastic glasses stagewards, yet still it continues. And so tonight, after a rousing set comes to an end, something smashes into frontman Kyle Falconer and, as he realises what it is, his face curls and he thunders off. The remaining band members, justifiably annoyed, decide to march off in support. Bassist Kieran Webster goes so far as to throw the set-list into the crowd to demonstrate that there were a number of encores planned, but that ‘some idiot has ruined it for everybody.’ Set ends, Atmosphere turns abruptly, and sporadic violence breaks out as people try to get at the culprits, whose faces indicate that they now can see their previously hilarious antics may soon have potentially painful consequences.

Now, the show must go on and all that, but there is a line and it has been crossed somewhat here. Yes, it is hard on the remainder of the crowd, but the behaviour of the few will not be moderated until bands do take a stand on this. They are within their rights to demand to be allowed to perform in safety as much as an audience is entitled to expect them to perform without being too drunk to stand. Venues have to take responsibility for the actions of their patrons and if this means throwing out some morons who are simply too stupid or stupefied to behave, then so be it. The View have a chequered past when it comes to shows finishing in ignominy, but they are blameless tonight.

Filed under: gigs Tagged: | bongo club, edinburgh, kieran webster, kyle falconer, Live music, live music in scotland, the view, the view are on fire, the view edinburgh