A chaotic but well-lit night.
After failing to overly impressive at the Camden Crawl, it was more in intrigue than expectation that the Hadouken! show in Glasgow was observed. It may have been the acts first Scottish show but with the internet these days, boundaries don't seem to matter. You can tell its nearing the end the end of term and the teachers are getting a bit lax with the homework as the venue was rammed full of youngsters.
Starting in the dark, the opportunity for the rainbow-like glosticks to be waved and twirled and when Hadouken! came on, it all seemed a bit chaotic for the first few minutes. After the opening track, lead singerJames Smith made a lengthy list of sound problems to be fixed, which made sense. It was hard to tell if the band were going for a murky sound or if the mix wasn't right. With current single 'Liquid Lives' being thrown in as early as the second track, it may have been better received if it was played better but it didn't matter to the crowd, they were loving every garish minute of the night.
With lyrics and shout-outs about drinking and smoking, you have to wonder if half the venue was old enough with even Smith making a joke about it. Don't get me wrong, Hadouken! certainly belong in the same sort of musical genre as Klaxons but whilst everyones favourite genre-splicers are pow(d)ered by MDMA, if theres a drug for Hadouken! it has to be Calpol.
Then again, perhaps simplicity is the key, with 'The Bounce' encouraging the kids to do just that, well not quite encourage as they were happily getting off their chumps from their own free will. As the sound quality improved you could sense the synth was driving the band on and the bass was starting to reverborate like a bass should. Even when Smith started to sing as opposed to shout or scream, it was all rather interesting. The proper vocals gave it an 80s indie vibe but when it went down the quick rock-rap route and it didn't really work. Then again, it has hardly ever worked so lets not fault Hadouken! for that one.
With a quick dash at the end, the set was over probably just in time to prevent from really descending into one-trick pony stuff but its still up for debate whether Hadouken! are going to stay the course. With youth, glosticks and Kiddie aspirin on their side, they may just make it.