It feels somewhat apt and fitting that Radiohead’s Hail To The Thief plays in its entirety on loop on Tut’s fabled downstairs jukebox tonight, it would have been around the time of that LPs release that a certain Mr Tom Vek began work on his maiden record, the critically lauded and current career benchmark We Have Sound.
Following a delayed release of We Have Sound back in 2005 Vek took the strange step of returning to the wilderness for a full on six years rather than build upon the momentum of being spoken of as the next big thing.
Although never quite reaching those previous heady heights 2011’s Leisure Seizure at least put to bed those rumours of alien captivity and or living the life of a hermit on a Reykjavik farm.
Turns out Leisure Seizure may have just been a means to remind the world the bespectacled one was indeed alive, perhaps just a warm up to this years offering, Luck, and a tour which perhaps returns Vek to a Glasgow live stage more suited to his brand of lo-fi electro having previously set up shop in the likes of Oran Mor and The Arches.
A pre set harmony loop of the new album’s opening track reverbs around a by now packed King Tut’s to signal the start of the set prior to anyone actually being present on stage, which they do at 10pm sharpish.
Swaggering on stage to lift his guitar, Vek can somehow give off an awkward while perfectly cool vibe all at once, a kind of walking talking contradiction who seemingly still has much to offer to music.
After all those opening loops and beats have simmered on ‘How Am I Meant To Know’, and the rest of his band join the fray things take a swift downturn, the sound created becomes messy and unfocused, the clumsy noise from a bunch of individual musicians rather than a collective, but we’ll mark it down as an opening number hiccup for now.
‘Pushing Your Luck’ proves that the sound issues are isolated to that one track, for now, as the band achieve a smooth harmony only partially ruined by an almost unforgivable and unnecessarily tacky outro reference to Salt N Pepa’s ‘Push It’.
But then everyone appears to approve as much hand clapping takes place so what do I know? Reworked outros seem to be the order of the day (or perhaps I just have a bizarre fixation) as Vek gets the old school crew bouncing with an old ‘classic’ in the form of ‘C-C (You Set The Fire In Me)’, which comes packaged with a rather less offensive conclusion.
Proving that his musicianship and natural ability to create music that flits between varied styles has done anything but wane over the last decade, Vek provides a well rounded accomplished set mostly built around Luck, but with enough smattering of old favourites to keep thee old faithful chirpy.
As ever, some in the venue tonight would rather screech on about how they fantasise about an encounter with their tutor and offer pure poetry such as Vek’s pure dead sexy in spite of his bespectacled ways.
New song highlights include ‘Lets Pray’ and the sombre Vek on solo strumming duties lament ‘The Girl You Wouldn’t Leave For Any Other Girl’, which provides a different pace to proceedings that not everyone is pleased with as one or two insist on duetting.
The former is as close to the glory of We Have Sound committed to tape yet, a funk monster of a track that helps dismiss an out of sorts rendition of ‘A Little Word in Your Ear’, which in spells gives an impression its being covered by a fellow Londoner; although the oldies might want to hear them if the hearts not in it better to bump it off.
‘Nothing But Green Lights’ is given much healthier treatment with almost each and every attendee managing to yell the strangely memorable “in a 1989 black Mercedes-Benz” while Vek later warns us of couple tunes from Leisure Seizure proving he hasn’t completely cast it aside.
Indeed his second album’s title track actually provides another jump in quality, with a wickedly trippy take far superior to the version recorded.
Bass is revved to the max for the timeless joy of ‘Ain’t Saying My Goodbyes’ with Vek in his element as the groove of his half dance is interspersed with knowing looks to his drummer to keep in time as the song comes to a fairly understated conclusion, which would be most probably milked further by a lesser artist.
Following a couple more which maintain the high bar set, and without any further doubts over the band as a unit, including the gentle balladry of the aforementioned attempted duet of ‘The Girl You Wouldn’t Leave For Any Other Girl’ the only other negatory to express is the lack of encore.
While those in Tut’s luck is now out for the night; Vek looks to be heading back towards something of the career trajectory previously forecast the first time Hail To The Thief was played on jukebox, with Luck maybe he has made his own luck.
Words: Andy Quigley
Photos: Stewart Fullerton
