Live Review

The Last Of The Free – King Tut’s, Glasgow

• 14th Aug 2011

The Last of the Free headlined a good night of music that featured four local bands, playing an excellent set that was much enjoyed by a near capacity Saturday night crowd.

The Puppet State, a four piece indie cum rock group, opened the night, and were the best of the support acts. Their melodic sound was based on solid drumming and featured nice hooks and big choruses. The lead singer has a good voice, which was particularly demonstrated on Closed Doors, a slower track with very emotional delivery and also on Structures, where he showed he could hit the high notes too. With plenty support in the audience they displayed enough to make them one to watch out for in the future.

Mocker brought their two guitar rock sound to the stage. While they were solid musically, the overall performance was a little flat and they seemed to aim for power rather than finesse. Still, as this was the first gig with a new line up it’s perhaps unfair to be too harsh. Eyes Wide Open featured slightly more expansive guitar work, while the closing Rock And Roll contained more energy than any other song. This performance is something for the band to build upon.

The Dirty Cuts have an unusual sound, combining solid rhythms and good guitar hooks with expansive synth and keyboard parts, played by the lead singer from an instrument strapped around his neck. There is an eighties vibe to the sound, but it manages not to feel dated, and the singer has a powerful voice. The beat was potent and many in the crowd danced along. The band showed in the closing Chick, which was performed without the synth, that they can do more straight up rock too.

The Last Of The Free, formerly known as The Nintendos, played a fine set of good, solid rock music. They line up with Scott Hawthorn behind the drums and George Findlay on bass standing centre stage, flanked by guitarists John Docherty and Martin Smith.

Vocal duties are share between the two guitarists, giving a nice variety to the music. And it was great to hear genuine Scottish accents rather than the mid Atlantic drawls that far too many young bands now seem to adopt.

The rhythm section set a solid beat while the guitarists played off each other, creating a dynamic sound that was matched by a high energy performance throughout. Stand was an early highlight, a slower intro lulling the crowd into a false sense of security before the track burst into life. Stolen Fact, a more melodic song, was also excellently delivered, with both vocalists involved.

The short set continued apace and the large crowd responded well to a new song, Live Fast Die Young, which took an age old rock cliché and turned it into an up tempo track that featured some excellent lead guitar work.

The closing Seek Don’t Hide saw many singing along with the chorus as the powerful drum beat drove the song, and the set, forward to the eventual conclusion. Despite calls for one more song, there was no encore.

The Last Of The Free are a young band who demonstrated considerable talent and the ability to put on a darned good rock show. As they add more songs to their repertoire it will be interesting to see if they can progress to bigger and better things. The signs certainly look good.