Credit: Richard Cobb
Live
Kagoule / Catholic Action
Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
November 6 2017
Words: Richard Cobb
I’ll get this out the way first, something needs to change about the average gig goer's mind set. It creates an awkward atmosphere if you’re attending a gig on a Monday night and as you walk through the doors you have to question whether you’re at a gig or a musical statues themed funeral. Thankfully, the mood picked up, much like it would when someone brings out a case of red wine and a cheese board at said funeral, when Catholic Action got up on stage.
Maybe it was subliminal messaging that led me to feeling guilty that this was my first time seeing Catholic Action live. With their newly released and brilliant debut album ‘In Memory Of’ a daily feature in my headphones, it was good to finally see them in a cosy venue like Sneaky Pete's. Sounding genuinely upbeat, they managed to pull the crowd out of the Monday mud that initially appeared to be restricting any movement, and by the second song of the set, ‘Rita Ora' -funnily enough, it is actually about Rita Ora - the audience were well on their way to enjoying themselves.
Credit: Richard Cobb
‘Breakfast’ served the crowd well, with the band letting go at the end. What works so well about that song is the unexpected pace throughout. Like a maze, it guides the listener down several paths, before blocking them with a 10ft hedge and leading them down another one. New song 'One Of Us' is a charming number about some young entrepreneurs that live on singer Chris McCrory’s street in Paisley, specialising in the fine art of selling heroin and crack. It’s not nearly as depressing as the theme might suggest, and it could be in the pipeline for album number two, which the band are already well into writing.
By this point, the smoke machine was going into overdrive, and the stage now resembled my street in Leith the night before when people were turning anything that looked expensive into a bonfire and illegitimate kids were letting off illegal homemade fireworks. It also had a suggestion of a game of laser quest about it, with most of the audience seemingly playing for a scoreless draw. Prior to the band playing ‘Stars and Stripes’ they advised it was probably one of their quietest numbers, and the competition was on to see if the crowd would be quieter than Oxford, where they’d played earlier. All was going well, it was neck and neck with near immaculate silence observed throughout the room at a pause in the song, until someone rather excitedly blurts out “fuck Oxford!” to shatter the silence.
Credit: Richard Cobb
Ending on crowd pleaser ‘L.U.V.’ it’s often easy to skim over the rhythm section of a band, but bassist Jamie Dubber and drummer Ryan Clark bring a lot to this song and gives it the effortless catchy vibe which when added to the addictive and memorable guitar lines from McCrory and Andrew MacPherson, makes it the ideal set closer.
In contrast to Catholic Action, I wasn’t familiar with Nottingham three-piece Kagoule so I didn’t really know what to expect. I seemed to be the only one in that boat though, as the majority in attendance were here for the headliners and had piled forward to the front of the stage when the band came on. It took me a few songs to get into, but by ‘Glue’ I was sold. The dynamic of the band works really well, and it was expertly showcased here as there was a real cohesion.
Credit: Michael Duncan
The guitar work midway from singer/guitarist Cai Burns splits up the song nicely, adding an important other element to the song. Like the unreliable radiators in my flat, the band took a little bit of time to warm the room up, with audience interaction minimal for the first half of the 45-minute set, though by the mid-way point with ‘Monsieur Auto’ they were clearly easing into it and looked like they were boosted by the tepid, but fully transfixed crowd as singer/bassist Lucy Hatter gave some relaxed chat prior to the remaining songs. Though not massively different to others of a similar grunge genre I’d heard before, I was really impressed with the raw energy the band created both in stage presence and on the songs themselves.
Credit: Michael Duncan
Set closer ‘It Knows It’ in particular was a real high point and sees the band firing on all cylinders with the hooky/echoey guitar lines and the filthy bass lines working well together alongside the shared vocals from Hatter and Burns creating a sound that leans towards The Pixies or The Smashing Pumpkins.
As a tour, these bands work well together and though somewhat different styles, there seems a mutual ground and a shared enthusiasm to playing the songs they’ve worked hard to create live. As long as the smoke machine hasn’t caused them too much damage, both are worth catching on the remainder of the tour.
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