LIVE REVIEW: Against The Current, LØLØ, Call Me Amour, SWG3 TV Studio, 04/12/2023
Photo Credit: Jack Geddes
Against The Current took their Nightmares & Daydreams tour to SWG3 on a freezing cold Monday night but the weather would soon be forgotten about as we were delighted to have three bands playing for us tonight. The band have been busy these last few months touring Asia and Europe and fans were even treated to a live stream of their Paris gig on 26th November. Call Me Amour opened the night and would play songs from their debut EP Revolution which was released at the end of November. The Glasgow based band are fronted by American vocalist Harry Radford, formerly of another Glasgow based band Yashin, and it didn’t take them long to get the crowd moving with their mix of dark electronica sound with sonic guitars. Blackout was a lively start to the set with a highlight being IMFKD which was sang alongside Mikey Chapman, formerly of Mallory Knox. For the last two tracks, Deeper and Girl On The Wall, Radford and his guitarist came out into the crowd to stir things up a little and cause mayhem in the half full room. He requested everyone to take video on their phones and upload the footage for a new video, which most duly did, this adding more energy to the performance. We would love to see Call Me Amour in a full show as they are a highly energised band. 9/10
Canadian singer LØLØ brought her own version of pop-punk to Glasgow and entertained us with a decent thirteen song set but sadly missed out the Bruce Springsteen cover Dancing In The Dark which would have went down great with a Glasgow crowd. LØLØ mostly writes her songs about relationships and perhaps appeals more to a younger audience but the set was full of energy and during Debbie Downer, where LØLØ also played guitar, the band handed out ‘cheerleader tinsel’ to a few fans creating a nice buzz around the SWG3 which was now filling up nicely. By far the biggest song U Turn Me On (but u give me depression) was a highlight of the set, with the catchy lyrics getting everyone dancing. A cover of Icona Pop’s track I Love It went down well as the young crowd sang the words back to the band. 8/10
SWG3 was now packed almost to capacity as recent single Good Guy opened the set and continuing with Wildfire and Again & Again. Recently released single Silent Stranger was played to perfection and shows how much Against The Current have changed their music over the three album releases yet they still managed to perform the songs seamlessly moving between albums.
A highlight of the night was a short acoustic set where it was just Chrissy Costanza and Will Ferri on the stage playing Almost Forgot from the Past Lives album and Chasing Ghosts from In Our Bones. Ferri showed his musical versatility quickly moving from playing acoustic guitar to going back on the drums for the last part of Chasing Ghosts, a great moment for the fans to remember.
Costanza asked the crowd about Glasgow’s football teams but obviously had no idea that mentioning football in Glasgow is a no no with an underlying current of sectarianism still prevalent in the city and thankfully things moved on swiftly! Costanza did her legendary back bend during Wasteland, which was the last song from the main set, definitely one of those ‘don’t try this at home’ moments. Everyone knew an encore was on the way as they had still to play their two biggest songs, first up Legends Never Die which was written for the 2017 League Of Legends Championships. This is a song with over 540 million streams on Spotify alone and Weapons was a great way to end the night with the crowd getting a chance to release any energy they may have had left. There are rumours of an album in 2024 and they will be returning to the UK in the summer for the Slam Dunk Festival. 10/10
Written By: Alan Brown
