The FudBlog: QMU

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

MOGWAI, QMU, GLASGOW, JANUARY 26 2025

First gig of 2025, and what a way to start! Local heroes play an intimate album release show ahead of a massive world tour.

Line-up:

Well, just MOGWAI.

This was something special. Managed to bag a (remarkably cheap!) ticket for the album release show at Queen Margaret University. Was unreasonably excited. Getting close to the gig, and Storm bloody Ee-I-Ee-I-Owyn hits Glasgow, bang on target and everything is closed. Worst possible timing. Gig postponed until the Sunday. I work Sundays. Had to beg for a day off. Got it. Thank fuck.

So, there they were. Scotland's finest, playing through their brand new album, 'The Bad Fire' from start to finish, ahead of their upcoming huge international tour. Never played it live before. Never played the QMU before. And it was dead good. Although they were relatively quiet. Not the usual ear-destroying volume-beasts. Loud enough, though.

There was a slightly awkward moment when they realised that they hadn't planned what to do at the end of the album playthrough. Do they go off for a bit? Do they stay and carry on? In the end they shuffled off for about 15 seconds and came right back, and ended the show with four old songs.

So good to see them in a smaller venue. Won't happen again soon.

VIDEO 1, 'Pale Vegan Hip Pain/If You Think This world is Bad, You Should See Some of the Others' https://youtu.be/G56dJCndwTE

VIDEO 2, 'Hammer Room' & 'Lion Rumpus'

VIDEO 3, 'Christmas Steps' https://youtu.be/HtK7l7Pbsdk

https://www.facebook.com/mogwai https://bsky.app/profile/mogwai.scot

Monday, October 28, 2024

CHELSEA WOLFE, QMU, GLASGOW, OCTOBER 27 2024

In which Google Maps saves the day. Mostly.

OK, this was supposed to be at St Luke's. So I turn up at St. Lukes, only to find out that it had been moved to the QMU. I have no fucking clue where QMU is, or how to get there. Fortunately, I have a phone and a passenger who learns quickly how to follow a route on Google Maps, and we get there eventually. I miss most of MARY JANE DUNPHE's set, so there's no accompanying video. She's American, a poet/visual artist/singer who does her thing to a recorded backing track. She sounds a little like a certain diminutive Icelander. She's not terrible, but there's not much more I can say. I'd have liked to have seen more. Still, I got one of the weirdest photographs I have ever taken.

Anyway, turns out that the QMU (Queen Margaret University, if you didn't know.) is a pretty decent venue. Good sound, nice elevated spot at the back for those of us who turn up late. Or who just like a nice elevated spot at the back. There's a VERY brief change-over, which is a VERY GOOD THING, and after only 15 minutes, here's CHELSEA WOLFE.

Not unexpectedly, for the actual queen of gorgeously gloomy industro-goth, it's all quite dark. Less smoke that anticipated, which is nice, but still enough to make pics from the back a bit hit-or-miss. She's not very chatty, and there is a shocking lack of cheery banter, but she is absolutely glorious. In turns, fragile and delicate and harsh and pulverising. Breathtaking stuff.