Babymetal @ Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow (19th February 2020)

with: Creeper

Hosted by: DF Concerts

WORDS: Joanne Gray

Babymetal's brand of 'kawaii metal' is about as Japanese as music can get. So much so that it has taken a decade for them to be able to finally come over to Glasgow for a headline show. Testing the waters by playing one-off festival sets and seeing their Western audience grow beyond the accusation of sheer novelty, the release of the group's third album Metal Galaxy (review here) meant that Babymetal could finally play outside of London on this run. This was still a short UK tour with only 4 dates- don't get me wrong- but considering the size of the band in their home country, this has been a long time coming. 

Having seen Babymetal play several festival shows over the years and being thoroughly blown over by their performance each time, there was no way I was going to miss this show. And clearly there were many people who felt the same way. Making it to the doors a tad late, I was greeted with a queue that wrapped all the way round the building all the way round to St Luke's. The longest queue I had seen at the Barras for sure. Thankfully though, there was only support band that night and they were on an hour after doors so I could catch all of their set.

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And that support band was Southampton's goth-punk six-piece Creeper. With the band taking a David Bowie-esque year long absence to prepare for their second album cycle, this tour would see them playing their first UK dates before they come back in April. Now, I've liked Creeper for a few years and I've seen them quite a few times but this was an odd booking. Of course, Babymetal would have to go for something a bit off-kilter, but I was thinking more along the lines of a daft metal or novelty band who don't take things very seriously. Creeper are definitely none of these things...

Showcasing their new appearance to the Glasgow audience, singer Will Gould carrying himself like a gothy Aladdin Sane and the rest of the band had changed their previous black denim to white. I'm not sure what the crowd expected from the band, but judging from the bewildered looks around me, this wasn't it. Deciding to open things with the upcoming album's 'Born Cold' (a mid-tempo, shimmering glam-rock song) only seemed to make everything feel that bit stranger. By the time we got to the middle of the song, I could see people around me smirking to each other and laughing at what they were seeing. My stomach dropped.

I thought that the older material from Eternity In Your Arms would help to get the crowd on their side, but as the punkier 'Poison Pens' bled into the gothier anthem 'Black Rain', I released that Gould's vocals and the guitars sounded insanely low in the mix. There just wasn't much opportunity for the punchy material to make an impact on the crowd as a whole. Sure, there were a few Creeper fans who were able to get a tiny pit going, but it was pretty awkward amongst the sea of apathy. 

God love them though. It didn't seem to matter much to Creeper who still performed to the best of their abilities. If the sound had better then the crowd may have been able to better appreciate the more melodic Alkaline Trio-esque dark pop-punk flourishes present on songs like 'Winona Forever' and 'Valentine'. Or the total euphoric glam of David Bowie worshipping track 'Annabelle'.  Or even the gothy theatre of Meatloaf-meets-My Chemical Romance bangers 'Down Below' or 'Hiding With Boys'. But alas, it would only be when the thrashier 'Suzanne' with its 'Ace of Spades' like throttle blasted through the speakers that we would get a hint of the heaviness needed to win over this crowd. 

And this appeared quite evident to the band by the time we got close to the end of the set. Gould made a point of thanking everyone for checking them out so early, and seemed to suggest that this gig was something a bit out of the ordinary for them. Although I do feel like the band's effort and honesty throughout did help to gain a bit of respect from the crowd, there was very little time to deliver a knock-out blow that could leave their performance with a more positive reception overall. The emotionally heavy balladry of 'Misery' certainly couldn't really help change the rather apathetic and distant response I felt towards the band that night. 

There's not many things out there more disheartening than watching a band you like struggle on a support slot, but sadly that was Creeper's fate that night. I'll admit I thought about skipping the end of their set because it was that hard to watch... I have no doubt their April shows will go down a lot better though, so I can get some comfort from that. I respect the hell out of them for playing to a crowd like this with such gusto but this was a damn foolish booking that really didn't pay off for them or the crowd, unfortunately...

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Even though the room had been pretty full for Creeper, it only became more rammed as we approached the main act's start time. Judging from the desire of the crowd to get as close to the front as possible, Babymetal would have none of the previous band's issues regarding unfamiliarity or apathy. Or indeed, with sound quality. 

As the lights went down, we were greeted with the much more intense sounds of the electro-rock intro 'Future Metal' blasting out through the PA, while a large screen in the background showed off some impressive galactic imagery. Cue the 'Kami Band' with their newly added black hoods and silver masks, and the trio of girls all clad in black. The place then proceeded to go absolutely mental as the colossal disco-djent tones of 'DA DA DANCE' was accompanied by frantic lights and moving imagery. Setting the scene for the rest of the evening in very typical J-Pop idol fashion, the girls' highly polished and strictly choreographed performances were incredibly impressive due to their energy and helped to maintain a sense of infectious fun throughout. 

Marking a continued progression in the band's narrative, the three-piece dynamic that was put on hold since Yui-metal's departure returned here but with the addition of Momoko Okazaki as the third 'Avenger' of the evening. Looking into their recent performances, it seems that the band now have three or four rotating backing dancers to fill this previous slot. Having seen the band perform as a duo with five backing dancers at Download in 2018, this scaling down was much easier on the eyes and allowed you to better focus on the screen and dancing at the same time. It also appears that the 'Kami' band sharing the stage with them consisted of Western musicians on this tour due to the conventional Japanese band members being busy with other projects. Fair play to the members of Galactic Empire and Shadow of Intent for stepping up here though, as you couldn't tell they were different musicians from the sheer sound alone. 

Pulling out their breakthrough hit quite early in the set, 'Gimme Chocolate!!''s breakneck thrashing showcased the utterly thunderous sound on show, and got the mosh pit in the middle of the room moving as ferociously as you could expect at the likes of a Slayer show. With the added fun of those high pitched bubblegum layered vocals, of course... As has to be mentioned when referencing a metal show, the use of backing tracks here has become more transparent in the band's performance. Often during the more dance-oriented sections, the backing tracks will play without any of the girls miming to it, leaving Su to sing 100% of the time and for the backing dancers to only mime when it suits the sound to do so. With the questions of authenticity being largely answered in their live act now more than ever, I would struggle to find any metal fan out there that could argue there is no skill attached to their performance.

Especially with the next two songs. Being one of my favourite songs from Metal Galaxy, I was so stoked that 'Shanti Shanti Shanti' got an airing that night, and so did most of the crowd as well. Accompanied by intense lights and brightly coloured Indian imagery and choreography, the whole room became the most fun metal Bollywood experience. Props here especially to Su for nailing those Indian vocal stylings live as well. The same very much applied for the next track 'BxMxC'. This Japan-only release ended up being one of the highlights of the evening despite me only maybe hearing it once before the gig. Bringing another different flavour to their performance, the hip-hop infused song brought forth some more forceful street dancing into the choreography into the performance, while the instruments were as heavy as a wrecking ball smashing through the side of the building. Another track where the crowd went haywire, the low-end rhythmic guitar chugs only emphasised how impressive it was that Su was hitting those odd higher inflections without any of the track's effects. Insane how this song wasn't on international releases of that album. 

The 'Kami band' on tour with the band got even more opportunities to show off after this as they got their own instrumental section before the Bring Me The Horizon-esque stadium rock anthem 'Kagerou'. Rolling with the grooving rhythms, we got a cool little solo section from the full band as the drummer flexed his muscles with some ferocious blast beats. Even with the extra melodic flourishes the song afterwards brought, the increased heaviness of the instruments on display meant that 'Kagerou' was far more impactful and fun live than on record. 'Oh! MAJINA!' upped this sense of fun as much as possible though, as the folk-metal shanty tune got the whole room bouncing while the Sabaton frontman Joakim Brodén's face and voice loomed large on the screen behind. With some pretty blunt Soviet style imagery as well, which was all pretty surreal

This trick was later used again in the irresistibly joyous 'PA PA YA!!', where the original music video featuring the Thai rapper F.Hero played alongside lyrics on the screen behind them. Before this though, it was over to the more classic tones of the synthy debut album track 'Megitsune' to get one of the biggest reactions of the night. The bounce of the synth line, the call and response sections, the utterly soaring melodic hooks and the death metal breakdown which sees the band bring out the iconic fox masks all just show why the song has remained a live staple after all these years. Once again the mosh pit went nuts here. This energy was maintained with the newer song 'Distortion' as its relentless pacey drums kept the bodies flying into one another, while the flashing red screen onstage added to the sense of chaos. I think it may have been during this song that the crowd was instructed to create a wall of death too, which was of course obediently obliged.

As we got into the grooving slabs of 'KARATE' and the frantic pummelling thrash metal of 'Headbanger', it became clear that we were getting close to the end of the setlist, but the energy didn't dip one bit. In fact, these songs would see some of the most intense pit action and headbanging seen all night. Testament to the earth crushing scale of those chunky riffs and endurance testing moves, that's for sure. As they went from one song into the next with a blank screen behind them though, I began to question whether it had broken or whether it was intentionally blank to allow for greater focus on the dancing here. Not that it affected the overall performance much, but it was still an interesting change from what had come before.

The band didn't leave me much time to wonder about this though. After they went offstage, hysterical chants quickly brought them back on to play the last song of the evening: the epic power-metal fist-raiser 'Road of Resistance'. Deliberate or not, the screens were back in action and helped to even further give the impression that we were at the end of a showstopping Anime battle just before the credits were about to roll. Walking onstage with huge Babymetal flags, the girls and the band gave one final rousing performance to end things on the greatest highs. In a rare moment where it almost seemed that the band broke out of choreographed character, the dancers beamed out to the crowd to insane levels of applause. Then it was all over. Or at least after we got one last Star Wars-like blast from the screens to show that "Episode VII" was continuing throughout the rest of the UK. A crazy ending for a crazy band. 

But you wouldn't ask for anything else. Or at least, you shouldn't. I have seen a few people say on the run-up to and immediately after this show that they were surprised that the band were only playing for an hour and felt a bit stung by this. I would say to them though that an hour of dancing with such intensity while wearing costumes is more impressive than you would think. Babymetal have also always played this length of a set, so I'm not really sure where those criticisms came from. Sure, we'd always like the best of gigs to go on forever, but that suggests how good this was rather than how it could have been improved, in my opinion...

With all things considered, I'm pretty stunned that it's taken so long for Babymetal to do a proper tour in the UK, as this was an incredible show from start to finish that will be hard for other metal bands to defeat throughout the year. Performances like this show that accusations that the 'novelty' has worn off bare no relevance to the reality that this band are here to stay. And with any luck, their next show in Glasgow won't be as far away next time. Don't put it past this band to play in arenas next time they're here either. With what I saw that night, that's extremely possible. An amazing set that I'm buzzing to see again at Download in the summer. Don't miss them if you're there. 

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Thanks to you for checking out this review of Babymetal's gig at the Barrowlands! Feel free to leave a comment below or you can help support RWEI by giving us a like/follow on the socials. As always, we're open to submissions and/or contributions from bands and writers in Glasgow and beyond so give us an email or message if you're interested. 

Cheers!