After supporting The Killers during their very successful summer UK tour including three night at this very arena, Travis decided that they would book a show of their own at the OVO Hydro as the last night of a UK tour promoting their tenth studio album release L.A.Times. Has it really been twenty-five years since The Man Who was released? For those that remember those round discs, this release was never off our CD player at the time and still remains a much-loved album as we are sure it does for a good proportion of tonight’s crowd.
Thankfully there was no repeat of the issues from the previous night at the Dylan John Thomas show where some of the crowd had to wait up to an hour to gain entry to the OVO Hydro. It was straight in, find seat and almost immediately Juanita Stein, the first of the support acts took to the stage. All the way from Australia the singer/songwriter plays guitar and is joined by a drummer onstage, it works really well even though the crowd are still filtering it. Stein is the lead singer of Aussie indie band Howling Bells but she has released several solo albums with the latest being The Weightless Hour. With this being the last night of the Travis tour, Stein is clearly very appreciative thanking them for asking her to support on the UK tour. It is a short but sweet performance of twenty minutes with the best of the set being Mother Nature’s Scorn and Motionless. 7/10
Scotland’s own Hamish Hawk provided the main support tonight, he is building quite a reputation around Scotland for his live shows and even had a headline show at the Barrowland Ballroom recently. He has been around for some time, in fact in August 2024 he released his fifth album A Firmer Hand and we would get to hear a mixture of old and new tracks tonight. Hamish states his influences are artists such as Jarvis Cocker and Leonard Cohen but his stage presence also reminds us of Joy Division vocalist the late Ian Curtis. The tongue twister song title The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973 steals the show. Hamish has been mixing up the set during the Travis tour so tonight it ends with the explosive Caterpillar, the intensity of his stage presence comes to the fore during this one. This was by far the biggest crowd the band have played to and we think it won’t be long until this talented band are playing bigger venues. Hamish Hawk plays Edinburgh Usher Hall in February 2025. 9/10
On the afternoon of the show we read that Fran Healy was in Glasgow’s Horseshoe Bar on Friday night singing his own song Why Does It Always Rain On Me? on karaoke! The bar staff commented that he was ok but preferred the original … Well tonight they would bring the house down with that very track at the end of the set. Healy is sporting bright orange hair these days and blames drinking too much Irn Bru for that, his humour would be a highlight of the night while the stage crew have the Santa outfits on as we await the arrival of the band for the last night of the Raze The Bar Tour. They soon take to the stage with the title music from US sitcom Cheers leading to massive cheers from the almost sold out crowd. The opener Bus is taken from the L.A.Times album and reminds us of when they toured Glasgow in an old fashioned bus stopping off at various venues including Barrowland, Travis played a secret set at this summer’s TRNSMT Festival that we somehow managed to miss so tonight more than makes up for that. What can we say about the next song? Driftwood is an iconic tune taken from The Man Who and prompts the first singalong of the night, there would be many more to come! They play a good mixture of older hits such as Love Will Come Through, Alive, Good Feeling and Writing To Reach You, the crowd response so far is really special. During Love Will Come Through, Fran demands the crowd raise their arms and sway side to side, most do whilst Alive is written about the singer ‘getting chucked’ in 1995, which in Scotland means getting dumped by your boyfriend/girlfriend!
Before playing Re-Offender, Healy gives some background to the song, telling the crowd about the domestic abuse he witnessed as a child growing up in Glasgow, it is a brutally honest song and hats off to him for tackling this important subject. During Side, Healy does his usual signature jump and Closer offers a chance for the crowd get the phone torches on and think of loved ones we have lost, my Mum and Dad come to mind immediately. It is a very emotional moment all around the arena that looks wonderful all lit up. The mood is then lifted with Sing, another chance for everyone to … sing. The tour is named Raze The Bar after a New York bar called Black and White bar that shut down during the pandemic and never reopened sadly, Fran comments “In Glasgow we have a thousand meanings for the word cunt” airing his frustrations at those who shut his favourite American bar down. They have the crowd well worked up now as Gaslight from L.A.Times is one of the best of the set and ends with the vocalist collapsing on the stage in a heap after putting every fibre of his being into this one.
Flowers In The Window begins the three track encore with a unique moment as all the band members share one guitar, Fran soon gives up on this though as he focuses on the vocals and dedicated it “to all the females in our lives”. There is a big surprise during the encore as the Red Hot Chilli Pipers join Travis and Hamish Hawk for a cover of the classic Wings track Mull Of Kintyre, this one does ‘Raze The Bar’ to another level giving the Hydro crowd a very special moment to remember. It’s a very well known song and everyone is singing along creating a great buzz in the arena for the finale Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, we can confirm that it has did nothing other than that the full day in the west of Scotland! They took the roof off the OVO Hydro with this last song sending us back into the dreich Glasgow weather. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
