Primal Scream, Glasgow review: 'rock’n’roll mayhem'

Primal Scream, Barrowland, Glasgow ★★★★

Gig two of a three night stand celebrating Primal Scream’s obliquely political XTRMNTR album and frontman Bobby Gillespie is starting to warm up, characterising the record as “pure hatred”. Originally released at the turn of the millennium, its heartseeking blend of jazz, Krautrock and electronica makes it a popular choice among the fanbase who don’t subscribe to the orthodoxy that Screamadelica is the best Primals album. Now we were here under the bright lights of Barrowland, however, it had to be admitted that it is not a collection overly blessed with bangers.

Album singles Kill All Hippies and Accelerator arrived early in the chronological performance but the turbo-charged Swastika Eyes was really the first opportunity for band and audience to cut loose. Elsewhere, Pills was a paean to Gillespie’s onetime favourite stimulants while the ballad Keep Your Dreams was a touch dreary.

A couple of instrumentals were more than placeholders. Space garage workout MBV Arkestra (If They Move, Kill Em) was embellished with squealing brass while the propulsive jazz and dub-infused Blood Money allowed drummer Darrin Mooney to showcase his chops, as a smorgasbord of counter cultural icons flashed up on the screen. Drone footage of a ravaged Palestine accompanied a second rendition of Swastika Eyes, this one a lean ticking bomb styled round a Chemical Brothers remix.

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The band returned to the stage for a wiggy electronica cover of The Third Bardo’s I’m Five Years Ahead Of My Time, attesting to their roots in garage and psychedelia, before Gillespie proclaimed “enough of the art rock” and presided over some obvious crowd pleasers. Loaded was a high point – you know you have it licked when the audience are singing along to a chord progression – but Country Girl provoked the rock’n’roll mayhem Gillespie has striven to distil across Primal Scream’s 40 year-plus career.

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