Vintage Trouble Live at The Barrowlands Glasgow Gig Review

Vintage Trouble returned to Glasgow for the second time in a matter of months for what was their largest headline show to date. Having been in the city supporting AC/DC on their Rock or Bust tour at Hampden Park earlier in the summer, the band was back for a second helping of pelvis pushing at Glasgow’s iconic Barrowlands Ballroom.

2015 has been an extremely busy year for VT. They’ve supported Paloma Faith on her arena tour, hooked up with AC/DC throughout Europe and North America, appeared at festivals such as Glastonbury, released a new album and have still managed to find time to fit in their current European headline tour. Why have they been in such demand? Well, it’s probably something to do with the fact that since making their breakthrough in 2011, the band, comprising Ty Taylor (vocals), Nalle Colt (guitar), Rick Barrio Dill (bass) and Richard Danielson (drums), have turned out to be one of the most exciting bands to have emerged in ages. Of course, having a frontman as good as Ty Taylor helps too!

First up though, was Slydigs. The Warrington-based fourpiece consist of Dean Fairhurst (vocals/guitar), Louis Menguy (lead guitar), Ben Breslin (bass) and Pete Fleming (drums). Slydigs were completely new to me, so I had never heard any of their music before the gig, but I tell you what, they were damned impressive! Their set was full of blues rocking energy, dirty guitars and tons of attitude.  One song which stood out for me in particular though was (what I later discovered to be) ‘Stiff Upper Lip’. It has one of the best hooks of any song I’ve heard from an emerging band this year. They have an EP and new single on the way, so visit their site and check them out for yourself HERE 

The Barrowlands has seen many iconic artists and bands take to it’s stage over the years, but I doubt it’s hosted a band quite like Vintage Trouble before. Before Ty and the guys came onstage I had a rather interesting chat with one of the security guys in the photopit. He was worried about crowd surfing. But not audience members coming over the top towards the stage, but Ty crowdsurfing out into the audience from the stage! Yep, this was gonna be an interesting night.

The first three songs of their set pretty much set the tone for the rest of the performance. Opening song ‘Soul Serenity’ is a wonderfully soulful ballad which really let the gospel roots of Taylor’s voice shine through. Next up was the outright barnstorming blues-rocker ‘Blues Hand Me Down’ which had Taylor burning up the stage with his epic dance moves, and saw him head into the audience for the first time that night. Third song, ‘Nancy Lee’, had a more funky vibe and a great groove, and tells the story of how Taylor’s parents (may have) met. Three very different styles of songs, and the rest of the set pretty much followed the same pattern.

It’s probably just as well there were quite a few slower numbers in the set so Ty Taylor could take a breather. The amount of effort and energy he put into his performance was astonishing. Taylor’s often been compared to James Brown, and when you see him in the kind of form he was here, such a comparison does’t seem unreasonable. And the audience absolutely LOVED him.

Highlight of the entire evening was the stonkingly good ‘Run Like The River’. Relentlessly pounding drums, driving bass, slide guitar, Ty out in the audience crowd surfing, sing along choruses, it had everything. If this song doesn’t get you bouncing, then just give up on music and take up tiddlywinks instead. Or knitting…

As the band closed out their set with ‘Pelvis Pusher’ it brought to an end what was by a country mile, the most enjoyable concert I’ve covered in 2015. If you’ve never seen Vintage Trouble live before, do yourself a favour and go to one of their shows next time they’re in your town. VT are simply awesome live, and in Ty Taylor they have, in my opinion, the best frontman in music today.

You can connect with Vintage Trouble on Facebook HERE

Drop by the Official Vintage Trouble website HERE

Barrowlands Setlist

1   Soul Serenity
2   Blues Hand Me Down
3   Nancy Lee
4   Angel City California
5   Another Man’s Words
6   Doin What You Were Doin
7   Shows What You Know
8   Before The Tear Drops
9   Run Like The River
10  Strike Your Light
11  Nobody Told Me
12 Pelvis Pusher