Corner of Chaos

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THE CORNER OF CHAOS

King Tut's Wah Wah Hut

I don't know how many people have heard of King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. I'd heard of it long before I moved to Glasgow because many of my favourite bands had played there in their early days and when you look at live dates and venues, that name, in homage to a similarly named gig venue in New York, really sticks in your mind. I was adament that I would attend this place as soon as I moved to the British Empire's second city; of course as anyone who reads this article regularly will know, I moved here in September and yet, up until two weeks ago, I had not completed my music pilgrammage. Until two weeks ago.

For no reason at all, I went. The bands playing were the headliners, Louis about whom I had heard some brief things on various internet discussion forums and mainly from my roommate who is the keeper of all things indie rock. Before them would be a very generic and rather blasé classic rock group, but the opening act certainly had a gimmick worthy of note. Glasvegas, a pun that was sadly wasted on somebody standing near the stage until the very end of the set, were a quartet of two guitarists, a bassist and a female drummer - well, not so much a drummer as the woman who turned on the drum machine and accompanied that with an occasional bang of her own. This aspect of the performance was a shame, as a drum machine always makes the performance seem less strong and certainly without it they would have been a wholly impressive band. With it, though, they still made an impact. Using 1950s style microphones was the beginning of their gimmick. The bassist wore 3-D glasses, the lead singer an American high school sports jacket and the lead guitarist a loud shirt with his collar up. I thought the image would be all that was rock 'n' roll (in its true sense) but the music was all based on familiar '50s riffs made heavier and rockier for the new century but with the same harmonising vocals. The result was brilliantly novel, imagine 'Let's Go To The Hop' played by any number of the post-2000 indie rockers and this would be somewhat close to these pretty impressive players. The only weakness was the constant feedback that let them down throughout all but the last of their songs, which showed on their faces to detract from the performance.

Obviously it is unlikely that you will see any of these acts (except for maybe Louis; headliners make it big, or at least achieve some notoriety a fair amount of time at King Tut's) and so it would be more formidable to focus on the venue itself. Located on the subterranean floor underneath an estate agents, the first part of the place is a normal bar with posters splattered all around about up and coming bands playing over the whole of Glasgow. The bar has a low ceiling and looks moderately old due to its wooden motif. Around the back is one pool table but this is not really the highlight of the place. After walking around the bar and to the back a set of double doors will be met. It is from here that you can walk upstairs to the venue which has a very small bar to the left and to the right. Restricted by the beginnings of an arch, is the stage. It is amazing how small the raising of the platform is and how small the room is. In front of the stage is a very small square area and then a raised platform which can be used to place some people, but it is not normally necessary and is mainly used for the technical side of things, sound and bog-standard lights.

How could such an uninspiring venue be so important to British music? Well other than the reputation it has built up over the last 12 years, hosting in their early days Oasis, Travis, Placebo to name but a few, the intimacy of the venue allows the audience to feel close to the band and the band can be judged much more on their actual performance rather than pyrotechniques, overwhelming architecture, elaborate dance routines etc. Also for bands such as Louis, who had a drummer, two guitarists, a bassist and two lead singers, it allows them to fill up the stage and give the place a packed feel - even more interesting it allows for them to easily run through the crowds and sing in the middle of an audience, gearing them up and breaking down traditional barriers. They weren't Oasis or anywhere near as good, but you don't expect them to and what you do expect, a half-decent show and good night out, is excelled as you are overwhelmed by the sense of atmosphere and the real music that you've never heard before and judge right as you hear it. For any music lover, this place has to be visited. BBC Radio 1 didn't vote it best gig over and over again just for the craic.

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23.02.06 Front Page

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