The Towers of London having been getting a lot of my personal play time of late and given that they've had their profile raised by numerous slots on TV shows and appearances at awards ceremonies, I wasn't surprised to see a larger than normal turn out for this one.

The band kept the crowd waiting for quite a while (which isn't that wise when you play in Glasgow) and perhaps bowing to the few 'boos' that were creeping in, the air raid siren eventually rang out and the band took to the stage with 'I'm a Rat'. Immediately the crowd rallied to the Towers who took control of the stage with real attitude.

There was a definite tension in the atmosphere and deciding that where we were standing was probably a hot spot for where an obvious fight was going to take place at some point, we decided to retire to the bar where the sound was a great deal clearer but the view was not so hot.

The Towers definitely have something in terms of being able to stir up a crowd, Donny answered back to the crowd on a few occasions (again not wise in Glasgow if you want to leave with your teeth) but given that he's incoherent at the best of times, the crowd didn't understand his accent and his own sound was not that great he probably got away with it. As a live act the band really are quite solid now and there's not one weak member musically, all of them can perform individually and collectively they're just total entertainment and have a great visual presence because they stay still.

The set was under an hour but did include most of the tracks from 'Blood, Sweat and Towers' such as 'Kill the Pop Scene', 'Beaujolais', 'Air Guitar', 'Fuck It Up', 'King' and a few unfamiliar ones. There was no encore sadly but all in all, I think fans of the Towers would have gone away from this gig very satisfied.

So where do the Towers go from here? Given they've had a documentary about them and are now darlings of a new punk rock scene can the band capitalise on the momentum that they are currently enjoying and become something bigger? I hope so but I'll reserve judgement on that until I hear the second album to see where that takes them. There were no real disappointments or let downs tonight - we came we saw and we got what we expected.

by Grant W.