LIVE REVIEW: Trash Boat, Strange Bones, Calva Louise, Death Blooms, The Cathouse, Glasgow, 23/10/2021
Photo Credit: Lucy Cheyne
In support of their third studio album Don’t You Feel Amazing?, Trash Boat recently headed out on tour across the UK taking Death Blooms, Calva Louise and Strange Bones along for the ride. We headed down to The Cathouse in Glasgow and here’s what went down on the night.
It’s no easy job to open a four-band bill, and Death Blooms do an admirable job. Their simple but effective brand of metalcore is performed well and the band are more than competent players, but the momentum is occasionally a bit lost amongst similar song structures and the band doesn’t always convincingly fill the stage as a three-piece. That being said, when they lean into the riff, there’s a satisfying crunch and bounce to more than a few of their tunes. 6/10
Calva Louise are an odd collective. There’s a lot of different elements to the sound that more collide into each other than gel effectively. It’s never really entirely clear what the point of the compositions are which is either surprising or frustrating depending on your inclination. It’s easily the less accomplished and well realised performance of the evening, despite being just as idiosyncratic as the rest of the bill. 5/10
Strange Bones are an unusual proposition in the modern rock scene. They’re a high-energy collision of punk-rock, the harsher end of Indie and jungle, and drum and bass vibes. For a live set, it’s short, and sharp and literally dripping with energy. There’s not a single second where the band standstill and it does occasionally feel a little overwhelming when bombarded with the walls of guitar and samples and relentless vocals. A band where knowing the material is very much an advantage, a point proven by their set-closing cover of Breathe by The Prodigy being the sole obviously identifiable tune in their set. All that being said, the performance is so mesmerizingly chaotic, knowing the material is not a barrier to entry either. 7/10
Trash Boat are a band in the midst of change, and it’s a change that has clearly filled the band with a newfound confidence and enthusiasm.
From the second they hit the stage, it’s a performance defined by confidence that’s infectious with the songs off their latest record sounding expertly crafted for the stage. The heavier bounce and crunch of the new material is complemented by the band’s melodic sensibilities.
The entire set is a triumph, crowd surfers cresting over the sold-out audience within the first few songs and good nature mosh pits popping up totally unprovoked. Not to mention the obligatory bouncing souls to the band’s older, more pop-punk-tinged material.
This brings up the only slight wrinkle in proceedings, Trash Boat do sometimes sound like two different bands. It’s occasionally jarring when the break-neck punk songs from their previous releases careen headlong in the sensual modern alt-rock stomp of songs from Don’t You Feel Amazing?. It’s not a critique of the quality of the songs from either era, but if the band continues down this new path, there’s going to need to be choices made about what tunes continue to make the cut. 8/10
Written By: Calum McMillan
Photos By: Lucy Cheyne
