Photo Credit: Paige Strabala
With three bands on the bill we were in for a special night of music at the iconic King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut on this Saturday night, this one has been sold out for a while now as three hundred or so people filled the venue, you can’t help but walk up the stairs really slowly taking in all the names of the famous bands that have graced this place. Oklahoma born Mothica was playing in Scotland for the first time tonight and we can’t think of a better venue to do so, releasing music for almost ten years now, the singer-songwriter has released an impressive four albums to date including the most recent Kissing Death on 23rd August this year, she has built a steady stream of followers around the world with her energetic pop-punk style of music.
The night of music opened with Leeds alternative rockers Artio who released their debut album Babyface in March of this year, vocalist Rae Brazil commanded the stage very well even getting some fan involvement early doors. The crowd reaction was very positive as they ran through some tracks from the Babyface album including the title song. You Set My Heart On Fire totally reminds us of YONAKA, the guitarist Rob Arkle stands out on this one with some very explosive work on the six string while the best of the set is Product Of My Own Design by far their biggest track with over three million streams. We would love to see Artio play a headline set in Glasgow. 8/10
We were lucky enough to see Starbenders play at The Cathouse just under a year ago promoting the release of the Take Back the Night album, since then they have a new drummer in Qi Wei and what a performance the musician put in tonight. The vocal quality isn’t great during opener Blood Moon and it is almost impossible to make out the lyrics sung by Kimi Shelter, however this improves slightly for next track Seven White Horses, Starbenders music could be considered post-modern glam rock with their KISS inspired style reminding us of the 1980s era. The best of the seven-track set is Sex, taken from the latest album, it was also great to hear new track Tokyo live as all four musicians on the stage make their presence felt the set ends with If You Need It. Starbenders gained a lot of new fans in Glasgow tonight judging by the reaction around us at the end of the set. 9/10
After a half hour turnaround with even the security helping to move the gear off the stage drummer Carter Vaughan and guitarist Alex Russo took to the stage amid chants of “Here we, here we, here we fucking go” from the lively crowd, King Tut’s is showing tonight why it has won awards for the best live venue in the UK. The last night of the Kissing Death tour is a special one as Mothica takes to the stage amid wild scenes with the red outfit almost reminding us of a young Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac fame. The first few tracks are from the Kissing Death album as the set gets under way with The Void, Toxins and Mirage, the interactions with the crowd are first class as she shakes hands with as many fans as possible helping to create a feeling of togetherness within the crowd. Next track Buzzkill is taken from 2021 EP Forever Fifteen is one of the best of the set and by far their biggest song to date with almost fifty-five million streams on Spotify alone, the crowd reaction to this song is special.
The first of two covers tonight is Bring Me The Horizon track Can You Feel My Heart, it is sung in true Mothica style appreciated all round while Afterlife is a standout song and VICES keep the energy levels high within the crowd and on the stage, some of the guitar work from Alex Russo is outstanding tonight and knows how to work a crowd. Chants of “Oh ah Mothica, I said oh ah Mothica” reverberate around the room, it’s possibly the first time Mothica has heard this chant as she continually asks for the crowd to repeat the chant throughout the set! Forever Fifteen is the moment that the crowd falls silent for the first time as we all listen to the story of a suicide attempt when she was fifteen, fans had been handing out small blue hearts at the start of the show and these were now held up to the camera torches to light the room up, this song stirs up emotions within the fanbase. At the end of the song Mothica rushes off the stage to gather herself, clearly this is very emotional track for the band to play. It’s such a great thing that more and more musicians are talking and singing about mental health these days, it surely trickles down to the fans thus allowing them to do the same. The energy levels rise again for Exit Plan and The Reaper from the new album, the latter being a high-energy dance track that gets everyone moving to the lyrics “I’m in love with the reaper/He’s the one, he’s the one, the only one I want/He’s a keeper”. The encore begins with CASUALTY and is a crowd pleaser while SENSITIVE keeps the place rocking and one final burst of energy during the Smash Mouth cover All Star ends the night on an incredible high, Mothica is in the crowd here as everyone is singing the lyrics back to her, making it a great end to the show. The Kissing Death tour is most likely the last that we will see Mothica play smaller venues, perhaps the next time they are in Scotland the Barrowland would be a more fitting venue, we hope so anyway. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
