A lot has happened since Self Defense Family were last in town.
Back at the end of 2013, they were in support of the very excellent Touche Amore at Stereo, were about to release their debut LP, Try Me, all shortly after changing their name from End of a Year.
In that previous incarnation and visit, they were still a band in flux, moving away from their slightly more generic style as End of a Year but still on their way to solidifying and embracing their experimental post-punk style, which has come to define Self Defense Family.
Now, almost three years later, they are fully committed to being Self Defense Family, the abrasively weird, hypnotic and incomparable band we have today, and it is no wonder this electric crowd are waiting with bated breath for it.
Before they arrive, however, we are treated to similarly individual and weird local act Damn Teeth.
Damn Teeth’s members have been floating around the Glasgow music scene for a while now, moving onto weirder and more expressive pastures each time (much like the headliners tonight) but always remaining an independent voice within Glasgow’s highly crowded alternative music scene.
Damn Teeth rip through their highly modulated and synthesised sounds over Sean Campbell’s driving, propulsive disco beats and Paul McArthur’s expressive, often difficult, vocal style and performance, all while flailing about the stage like nobodies business.
Creative Adult, who share a guitarist with Self Defense Family’s ever growing… err, family, are up next as SDF’s tour support.
It’s not particularly difficult to see why these bands are touring together (other than sharing a guitarist) as they have an equally unique look at punk and post-hardcore albeit more from the Fucked Up end of the spectrum.
Creative Adult bring an easier going levity to proceedings, but still, nevertheless carry a real energy about them that easily has the crowd on their side by the end of psychedelic opener ‘Connected’.
Meanwhile, singles ‘Moving Window’ and closer ‘Charged’ show the Californian band’s more pop-sensibilities giving a strong range to their set.
The crowd are at fever pitch by the time Self Defense Family take the stage, however.
Arriving to little self-proclaimed fanfare, they instead launch straight into their set appropriately enough with ‘Cottaging’ from their Scotland EP.
Instantly, the band shake off any early set jitters and rip through their set at a tremendous force, later specifically thanking Glasgow for being a particularly welcoming and supporting venue for them to come and play.
Over the course of their set, Self Defense Family show why they are one of the most important bands going right now, period.
The large band are surprisingly loose for one whose whole music is built upon hypnotic repetition, but the whole ensemble is tied together by enigmatic frontman Patrick Kinlon, who strains every one of his words of all its worth through his throaty, pained delivery.
Kinlon performs as if he is the preacher of an anti-establishment religion, something the band can often feel like with its large amount of ever-changing members and their ever increasing fervently supporting followers and it is a truly mesmerising experience.
The New York band smash through something of a greatest hits of theirs, featuring new: ‘Talia’ from last years Heaven is Earth LP and ‘Brittany Murphy in 8 Mile’ from their latest excellent EP, Colicky, and old: such as ‘Self Immolation Family’ from the Iceland EP and ‘Tithe Pig’ from Try Me.
Ultimately, whether the band ever get any “bigger” than the stage they are at now is irrelevant, there is no one else around at the moment producing such consistently high-quality material at such a frighteningly prolific rate.
If Self Defense Family is indeed the new religion, then we are truly blessed to have experienced them here tonight.
Words: Adam Turner-Heffer Photos: Ann-Christian Heinrich
