The Airborne Toxic Event - Glasgow

ABC 1 is sold out. This for a band who have spent the last two years touring and touring. This for a group with a solitary album to their name. Mikel Jollet tells us from the stage that this is the seventh time the band have played this city. The first time to a small group of twelve at Barfly, then back to play to a hundred, return once more double that, last year they were on stage in front of several hundred more and tonight the packed venue with over a thousand is ready to illustrate the reward of hard work.  The band are keen to finish the tour and get home. There is an air of de-mob happiness about them tonight. All smiles, jokes, energy, shouts out to the crowd all cascading together in an enthusiastic thrash through Jim Carroll's 'People who Died'. 

Stunning stagecraft is evidence of their time on the road. They are a blur of energy, shape throwing and crowd pleasing banter. Confidence stemming from the large festivals the band have played over the summer making a venue like the ABC an intimate soiree.

Alongside the professionalism in their approach lies the small band attitude of making each gig special for the punters. So the crowd get the album played with respect and then the bonus of an almost acoustic version of 'Wishing Well', a couple of new songs and a vocal flirtation with The Smiths 'Ask' and 'Panic'.

Huge cheer for Anna Bulbrook's viola start to 'Sometime Around Midnight' as everyone sings along with one of the best songs about the aftermath of heartbreak. 'Gasoline' has us all yelling the story of how we let our only true love slip away to be replaced by a succession of paper thin imitations, the other songs tell of lonliness, loss and isolation all hidden underneath power pop chords and anthemic hues. 'Happiness is Over rated' and 'This is Nowhere' are more explicit about lives damaged and hope extinguished.  Under the sugar coated surface the songs of The Airborne Toxic Event contain more than just traces of despair and distance. You can understand why they reference Jim Carroll at the show. His 'Catholic Boy' lays down the template for Jollet's songs. 'I was a Catholic boy, Redeemed through pain, Not through joy.' in other places Carroll sings, 'Everything you ever wanted, Is passing with the driving rain.'  Compare with ATE's 'Happiness is Overrated', 'But you know those words that you said, They get stuck here in my head, And this feeling I dread, it makes me wish I was dead, Or just alone instead.'   From the smiles on stage to the sing-a long crowd you'd never know what lies beneath.

Where will that leave the band in 2010? One new song played was 'Goodbye Horses' which was both bold sounding and infectious. But this is a cover. So will the band have the depth of songs for another class album and will success and the love of 1200 Glaswegians affect their muse? In future releases, will the inspirational sound of Airborne Toxic Event be matched with uplifting lyrics of hope?  

It'll certainly be fun finding out. I, for one, will be back to cheer them when they return to play to thousands more at the SECC.


                                            Sometime Around Midnight

And it starts...
sometime around midnight
or at least that's when
you lose yourself
for a minute or two

As you stand...
under the barlights
and the band plays some song
about forgetting yourself for a while
and the piano's this melancholy soundtrack
to her smile
And that white dress she's wearing
you haven't seen her
for a while

But you know...
that she's watching
She's laughing, she's turning
she's holding her tonic like a cross
The room suddenly spinning
she walks up and asks how you are
so you can smell her perfume
you can see her lying naked in your arms

And so there's a change...
in your emotions
and all of these memories come rushing
like feral waves to your mind
of the curl of your bodies
like two perfect circles entwined
and you feel hopeless, and homelss
and lost in the haze
of the wine

And she leaves...
with someone you don't know
but she makes sure you saw her
she looks right at you and bolts
As she walks out the door
your blood boiling
your stomach in ropes

and when your friends say what is it
you look like you've seen a ghost
And you walk...
under the streetlights
and you're too drunk to notice
that everyone is staring at you
and you don't care what you look like
the world is falling
around you

You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her
You just have to see her

and you know that she'll break you
in two .