Vex Red @ King Tut's (21st February 2020)

with: Soeur, The Blood & Gold and Lucid Hounds

Hosted by: DF Concerts

WORDS: Ray Mondo

Friday evening in Glasgow, and there's not many better ways to spend it other than in the legendary King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. Especially at a gig where the set is packed with quality-sounding bands from near and far. With a setlist as fruitful as this, there wasn't much that could go wrong, unless...

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To begin in a fine manner, I had the misfortune of missing opening band Lucid Hounds' set due to what I can only assume was a miscommunication between the venue managers and/or event organisers/ticket outlets... The gig had been advertised online as starting at 8.30pm when doors had actually opened half an hour earlier: crucial time in the world of live music, as you can imagine.

As a result of this, it seemed that the confusion had made its way amongst the bands, with sets starting at completely different times as shown on the posters around the venue, and in some cases these were cut slightly shorter than expected. We're not sure what happened here, but it's a slight bit disappointing given the previous quality of gigs within this excellent venue. Regardless of what happened or whose fault it may have been, we just hope that lessons have been learned for next time.

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The second (or rather, first) band of the evening was The Blood & Gold; coming all the way from Strathaven to put another notch on their bed-post of gigs played at King Tut's. Bringing with them some raucous riffs and punchy bass lines, the band were set to impress with this sure-fire combination of huge classic-rock-sounding riffs and high-hitting vocals, coupled together with a formidable stage presence and ambitious energy.

With only a few tunes available on streaming services, the band could be overheard talking afterwards with new fans about their current works-in-progress, which will definitely be worth keeping an eye out for in the future.

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The next band on were Vex Red's main support for this tour: Soeur. They are undoubtedly one of the hardest working bands in the United Kingdom at the moment, coming back to Glasgow right off the back of their last visits with goth-rockers Saint Agnes, and a sold-out gig taking place only just a few days ago as part of a successful tour with Troon alt-pop band Vukovi. Known for their abrasive math-rock/alt-grunge (think somewhere between The Mars Volta and Sleater-Kinney) topped off with dual-vocals very reminiscent to those of Alice in Chains (always a sure-fire combination in my book), the band did not fail to impress as they brought out the all the heavy-hitters from their repertoire, such as riff-fest 'No Fire', 'Don't' in all its grungy goodness, and the thoughtful, ever-resonating thinker 'Slow Days' just to name a few.

Going down a treat with the eager crowd who were watching with interest and even dancing along for a few songs, Soeur set the bar high for the remainder of the evening. It's not hard to see why Soeur end up having so many gigs on the go, but as long as they're playing, they'll keep bringing in crowds. If you're unlucky enough to have not seen Soeur yet, it's safe to say you're missing out.

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The last band on were headliners Vex Red, a reunited alt-metal group from the early 2000s. Back together in their largely-original lineup, the band is made up of Terry Abbot (guitar & vocals), Keith Lambert (bass & keys), Anthony Forbes (guitar & keys), Nick Goulding (bass & guitar) and Dave Neale (drums). After several years pursuing their own projects, the band got back together and began work on new material almost right away, eventually leading to the release of new EP Give Me The Dark.

Bringing in a room full of fans from an interesting variety of age groups, there was no mistake that the evening's proceedings would be a delight to fans old and new, as the band pulled out a packed setlist. Featuring tunes from their 2002 debut album Start With a Strong and Persistent Desire and the aforementioned EP, they started with the Placebo-esque space-rock of 'Dahlia' and 'Clone Jesus', which could easily be mistaken for one of Deftones' heavier nu-metal/alt-rock fusions. The more electronic-led yet still metallic-sounding 'So I Can Sleep' appeared as the first new EP track of the set, and clearly went down well with the crowd. Already blending in seamlessly with all the classics, the song showed that the band still have the songwriting chops and chemistry that makes their debut album still fresh and unique.

More tracks from the band's strong repertoire made their appearance, with the crowd enjoying each and every one that got played. Just from this, it was easy to tell that there were some die-hards in the room tonight who had been waiting to hear these songs live again for a number of years, and easy to say that the band knew what to give them as they rolled out further classic album tracks, as well as the 'Can't Smile' single B-side 'Tired', and an impressive cover of 'I Am Weightless' from lead singer Terry Abbot's former project Septembre. If this wasn't enough, the audience were also treated to 'Can't Smile' (which judging by the calls and cries of the song's title from the audience, this was the one that they'd been waiting for the most), which made for a fitting end to this part of the set.

For the eloquently-handled encore, we were treated to a brand new tune written by the band only the previous week. 'Guillotines' was an emotive-sounding number performed only by Abbot on vocals and keyboardist Keith Lambert on the now-appropriately darkly lit stage. Spotlights shone on both as the rest of the band took a much-needed rest after the energetic performance they'd been keeping up all night. One more new track rounded up the end of the encore nicely in the form of 'Air', a borderline-sludgy head-swayer which showcased just how huge Vex Red can sound even in a small space as this. After all of this, of course the simply lush sounding 'Start With a Strong and Persistent Desire' made for an undoubtedly triumphant finish.

Despite all the mistimings of the evening, all the bands played excellent sets and put on a great show for a Friday night (something which even despite these issues can never be of disappointment when in Glasgow). With a handful of new tunes to join their already impressive arsenal of songs, the future looks to be a bright one for Vex Red, and they'll have no doubt made some new fans tonight who will be in for a treat when it comes to exploring their back catalogue and taking in the new EP.

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Thanks to Ray for his review of Vex Red at the King Tut's, and thanks to you for checking this out! 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!