LIVE REVIEW: RØRY, As December Falls, Lake Malice, SWG3 Galvanizers, Glasgow, 12/03/2025
Photo Credit: Kevin O’Sullivan (6th March – O2 Forum Kentish Town)
After the release of the debut album RESTORATION last month we recently had the opportunity to see RØRY play in the flesh and what a stunning performance they put on tonight for the crowd in Glasgow’s West End, a lot of them members of the ‘RØRY #37 Club’ a Facebook page set up by some enthusiastic fans. The queue was way up the road when we arrived and after a short delay we were there in time for the start of the Lake Malice set, a band we have wanted to see live for a while now and even had the opportunity to interview tonight! Add in the main support of As December Falls and here we have three unsigned bands and all female-led for a very memorable night of alternative rock music.
SWG3 Galvanizers can hold just over one thousand music fans and there were a few hundred in at 7.15pm as Brighton duo Lake Malice took to the stage, they are Italian singer Alice Guala (pronounced All-eee-chi) and Blake Cornwall on guitar, the bands name comes from their names B(Lake) M(Alice), we only found that one out during the interview Bring The Noise did with them both after the set. These two musicians don’t like standing still for a second, they both have incredible on-stage energy that filters through to the audience who are moving from the word go as they worked through a seven-track set starting with Blossoms, Magic Square and Mitsuko, there were no mosh pits during this set … but there was a conga with Blake Cornwall right in the centre of it. The fans are lapping it up joining in the fun. Latest release Scatterbrain sounds great live as does a new track Nobody Wants To Be You, a song that may well feature on the debut Lake Malice album when it is released. Like myself most people would be seeing them live for the first time tonight and we are sure that they created a good enough impression on the crowd to be invited back on tour sometime. The set ended with Stop The Party and Bloodbath, the latter being the best of the short set, look out for our exclusive interview with Lake Malice soon. 8/10
We saw As December Falls play at The Garage in Glasgow just over a year ago where they received a great response, tonight we would get to hear seven tracks including two of their new ones, Therapy and Angry Cry, we can confirm that they both sounded amazing and we are looking forward to hearing the new album Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine, due for release on 8th August. They walked on to the stage to The Venga Boys, as we say in the west of Scotland ‘whatever floats yer boat!’. After the earlier conga we now get the first mosh pit of the night during Mayday while Singer Bethany Curtis bounced around the stage energetically for the duration of the half-hour set. Carousel is their biggest release to date and gets a decent reaction from the crowd, SWG3 is now jam packed with fans eager to see RØRY perform, Bethany asks the crowd if they would come back to see ADF live for an upcoming tour and the answer is a resounding yes! 8/10
The atmosphere among the crowd is electric when the stage lights up in a church-like scene and what more appropriate song would there be to play first than In The Bible from the new album RESTORATION, the crowd are exercising the vocal chords early on helping RØRY in the opening lyrics “in the bible it said God would send a fool to shame the wise/You still didn’t see me coming, did you? Surprise!” and is quickly followed by another from the same record if pain could talk, what would it say?. This is the start we were all looking for and to be honest it stayed like this for the full ninety minute set, tonight had everything you could ever ask from a gig and more … there was even a proposal thrown in for extra drama! For My Funeral Song RØRY was joined by Bethany Curtis and both vocalists get the crowd fired up, the energy coming from the stage is mirrored by the very enthusiastic audience.
Jesus & John Lennon was written about the death of the singers mum and is a very emotional moment during the set while ANTI-REPRESSANT contains some very explosive lyrics, “I’d put a bullet in your fucking head/I’d pull the trigger now you’re fucking dead/It’s my medication, I swear that it’s making me wanna put a bullet in your fucking head”, more thought provoking lyrics as RØRY tries to deal with the trauma of the past. All eyes are suddenly facing the back of the venue as RØRY performed two tracks acoustically – One Drink Away and the apology I’ll never receive being the songs – as she tells the story of why she is over six years sober. It takes a lot of guts for an artist to lay all their cards on the table as RØRY does throughout the performance tonight but the crowd have got her back every time. Normal business continues on the main stage with MORALITY $UICIDE, one of the best of the set here, we hate continuously focusing on the song lyrics but they are just so meaningful … “I think that maybe there’s a problem on this planet/when did war become our universal language?/they drop bombs and turn a hospital to ashes/that’s collateral damage”, the lyrics don’t come more powerful than that … RØRY’s husband makes a couple of guest appearances on the stage tonight to the delight of the crowd as they both work together on a podcast. The main set ends with WOLVES and The Atheist as the crowd give the band a massive cheer, let’s not forget at this point that RØRY isn’t just a solo artist, she is joined on stage by Charlie Manning (guitar), Pete Daynes (bass & keyboards) and Becca Robinson (drums) who are all superb throughout.
It was now well after 10pm as we awaited the encore, the set ending with two of the best RØRY tracks in SORRY I’M LATE, the chorus will remain long in the memory as just about everyone is screaming the lyrics back to the stage in one last collective effort “Sorry I’m late I fucked my life/sorry I’m late my mum just died/sorry I’m late I got too high/been busy trying to stay alive” profound lyrics that resonate with most in the venue. BLOSSOM, another from the RESTORATION album ends a very full-on night of music that had lots of tears and laughter surrounded by lovely people, that’s what makes a RØRY show so special. We reckon the Barrowland Ballroom would be an appropriate sized venue for the next time RØRY hits Glasgow. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
