BzIt is hard to believe that the last album from Chicago rock band Madina Lake was 2011’s Word War III, even though they released EP The Beginning Of New Endings in September 2020 we would definitely love to see the band release another album in the near future. The UK tour hits Glasgow and the intimate venue of SLAY for what is the band’s 20th anniversary tour. The band promised to play a good selection of their back catalogue mainly focusing on 2007 debut album From Them, Through Us, To You, an album from which we would get to hear ten songs tonight.
We wanted to get down early for the first support band Bad Luck and while queuing for entry we got chatting to a couple of ladies behind us who said this would be their fifteenth time seeing Madina Lake live, that’s some achievement! The first support band Bad Luck have come all the way from New York City and they warmed the crowd up nicely for what was to come. This is their first time on these shores and it wasn’t long before they took to the stage as the venue grew busier, brothers Dominick (vocals) and Joseph Fox (bass) are the mainstay of the band joined on stage by childhood friends Michael Sichel and Charlie Caruso. They have been around for some time releasing debut album Cold Bones back in 2014, with their latest release being 2023’s Take What You Need and from that album we would get to hear three tracks. There were around one hundred and twenty gig-goers in the room at this point but sadly the crowd let the band down with the lack of enthusiasm, Dom gets it about right when he screams “Wake the fuck up motherfuckers!”. Personally we found the music an enjoyable mixture of punk and rock, Fox tried his best to work the crowd up with his high energy bass performance. The best songs for us were at the end of the set with Willoughby and Impressive Depressive. 7/10
Greywind may have only released one album to date – Afterthoughts in 2017 – but they sure put on an impressive live show, siblings Steph and Paul O’Sullivan rocked SLAY to the core tonight with a collection of emo rock tracks. We saw Greywind perform at Glasgow’s Audio venue last year promoting their EP Antidote and we knew they would go on to bigger and better things. Steph commanded the stage from the word go as she requested crowd participation and they duly obliged as the set began with Your My Medicine and one of our personal favourites Swing and Sway. This performance had everything you could wish for from a band that are sounding much more defined and confident since they returned from the USA where they had been touring. The set ended with two of their biggest songs – Antidote and Afterthoughts – the crowd got right behind the performance even though most of them may not have even heard of Greywind before tonight, they won’t forget them in a hurry! 9/10
It was now time for the main act Madina Lake, the excitement around the packed intimate venue was special with a good chunk of them thirty or forty something’s that have followed the band right from the beginning. They didn’t have to wait long to get the lungs working as the first five tracks were from the debut album From Them, Through Us, To You, it is a frenetic start as they started the set with In Another Life, Adalia, One Last Kiss, House of Cards and Now or Never. Vocalist Nathan Leone used his charisma on the crowd from the off as he bounded around the stage bare footed as he always does, his brother Matthew was also a standout as he entertained the crowd with his fine bass playing skills. The fans would already be thinking that the eight year wait to see their heroes was well worth the wait. The energy around the room was palpable and it was now time to hear a couple of tracks from the Attic To Eden album – Lets Get Out Of Here and Never Take Us Alive being the songs – the band must have been wondering why they have taken so long to return to Glasgow, a city that has a special place in their hearts as Nathan commented during the fifteen song set.
A cover of Limp Bizkit song Nookie gets a great response from the crowd while the main set ends with three more from the aforementioned debut album with Me vs The World being a highlight of the set. Welcome To Oblivion opens the encore but it’s the last song that gets the crowd frantically dancing and singing as a cover of Nirvana classic Smells Like Teen Spirit ends an outstanding night of music. After the UK tour dates they head home to the USA for more dates in March. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
