Photo Credit: Kevin O’Sullivan (London – 29th February 2024)
The cold weather wasn’t enough to put us off from another night on the tiles at the famous Barrowland Ballroom as Mother Mother brought their high-energy show to Glasgow for the first time allowing the fans to test that spring loaded floor to the maximum! The bands 2022 album INSIDE catapulted them to success but it was when they went viral on TikTok in 2020 that things really started happening for them. Mother Mother released their ninth studio album Grief Chapter on 16th February to critical acclaim and we would get to hear most of the tracks from it tonight.
Incidentally, tonight’s support band, Liverpool-based Crawlers also released an album on 16th February – The Mess We Seem To Make. It has to be said that the Barrowland crowd did us proud tonight, as by 7.30pm the ballroom was jam packed with eager fans waiting to hear Crawlers set and none of the usual chatting during the support band was evident, the crowd being completely mesmerised in the moment. Crawlers were cheered on to the stage as they came on one by one and from the outset the enthusiasm from vocalist Holly Minto towards the fans was reciprocated back to the stage as the set began with I Don’t Want it from the aforementioned album. Eight of the nine track set would be from the new release and the band didn’t need to worry if the fans had enough time to learn the new songs as they sang back every word to them, with the young enthusiastic audience enjoying every moment of the set. During Better If I Just Pretend, Minto asked the fans to get down low before exploding into the air which the whole room did to the delight of the four band members on the stage. The bands biggest song to date by far is Come Over (Again) which has an impressive 54 millions streams as the vocalist asked the fans to turn on the phone torches which looked amazing. We think it won’t be too long before Crawlers are back at ‘The Barras’ headlining. 8/10
Mother Mother were headlining in Glasgow for the first time tonight and we can’t think of a better venue to do so with the show being long sold out. The indie-rock band from British Columbia are comprised of Ryan Guldemond (vocals, guitar), his sister Molly Guldemond (vocals, keys), Jasmin Parkin (vocals, keys), Mike Young (Bass) and Ali Siadat (drums) and as the band took to the stage to a thunderous roar they seemed a little overawed to the crowd’s response but they soon settled into the set which began with Nobody Escapes from the Grief Chapter album and singer Ryan joking that ‘nobody escapes from here tonight’. The charismatic vocalist also said that people had been fainting at their gigs and sure enough around halfway through the set someone in the crowd needed medical attention with Guldemond stopping the show until the fan received treatment, which allowed everyone to get their breath back.
We got to hear old songs and new tonight during the impressive twenty four track set, with one of the highlights being the two keyboard players Molly and Jasmin who both played with great synchronicity throughout while providing the backing vocals. Some of the guitar work from Ryan was outstanding as the band used the whole stage to really connect to their fanbase. The two female members of the band took centre stage as they sang Body from the 2008 O MY HEART album with some entertaining lyrics surrounding death “Take my heart, pull it apart/And take my brain, or what remains/And throw it all away/’Cause I’ve grown tired of this body”. The fans would have been waiting patiently for the big hitting tracks that made the band famous on TikTok: as Hayloft and Verbatim were left until near the end of the set and these two songs certainly got the crowd moving. Mother Mother provided an hour and a half of diverse music for the 2,000 or so fans that managed to get their hands on a ticket for this sold out show. The UK and Ireland tour continues before the band head to mainland Europe for a longer tour. 9/10
Written By: Alan Brown
