IN ROCK'N'ROLL, volatility is usually considered good form but is rarely encountered, outside of an Iggy Pop show. The warning/promise to "expect the unexpected" is generally just a tired cliché. But it rings true when applied to an Aliens gig.
Al
iens frontman Gordon Anderson, sometimes known as the Lone Pigeon, is a genuinely unpredictable stage presence. Before this hometown gig had gone anywhere, he was venting his frustration with his guitar, not by slinging it into a monitor, but by dancing out his aggravation, just like that scene with Kevin Bacon in Footloose.
Anderson is well supported by his fellow band members and ex-Beta Band buddies John Maclean and Robin Jones, who seemed gently in tune with his erratic ways. You couldn't call this a tight performance but, once the band locked into one of their psychedelic grooves, neither was it ramshackle.
Live favourite Robot Man was accompanied by rather loose-limbed body-popping from Anderson and spiced up by an Italian house-style piano break from Maclean, which gave the track the feel of a Madchester revivalist number. The material from new album Luna, in particular, felt like an incontinent outpouring of bygone musical references, from cosmic blues jams to ambient prog. There were even shades of Ultravox on one quasi-gothic synth number.
At times, it felt like punk had never happened, but there is such a liberating quality to The Aliens' retro odyssey that a trio of have-a-go fans were inspired to mark the end of the gig with a mini-stage invasion, before being politely but firmly removed by security – free The Liquid Room Three!
The full article contains 280 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
