BASEMENT // THE GARAGE, GLASGOW
Basement, English emo-rockers, brought their passionate, hard sound to appreciative group of adoring fans in one of Glasgow’s top alternative venues – The Garage.
★★★★☆
With two support acts, the punky Ecca Vandals and the upcoming indie sensation Joyce Manor, the night was filled with head bangers, moshers and crowd surfers. The audience left having released there angst and having lost themselves in the freedom of Basement’s angry, powerful sound.
Opened in the mid-90s along one of the busiest streets in Glasgow, The Garage has quite a reputation among young people and students for being the place to go on a night out. With club nights playing pop, rock, and classic anthems as well even hosting regular paint parties and bouncy castle nights, one would be forgiven to think the venue is always going to be filled with fresh faced teens who cannot handle their tipple. But this large venue has so much more to it. Hosting regular gigs, The Garage is developing a reputation among music lovers as a great spot to catch a band. Despite its large size, spanning 4 levels, the main hall, where most gig take place, has an intimate charm that allows viewer to feel connected to the act that they have been waiting to see.
Basement are a guitar heavy five-piece from Suffolk. After initially starting as In This For Fun, who released an EP ‘Away From Home,’ the lads then reformed and found their way as Basement in 2009. With four albums and an EP under their belt, the band are reaching new heights in the alternative music scene, they’re fine tuning their style and delighting audiences up and down the country. As the band tour new album ‘Beside Myself,’ released in October 2018, their style is evolving though consistent.
The whole night’s performance at the Garage was clearly loved by the crowd. Support acts received a huge reception. Joyce Manor seemed to have brought in a huge group of fans who let loose for their set of pop-punk rock reminiscent of early Blink 182. With the crowd starting to enjoy themselves; new single the hard but melodic 'Disconnect' sounds out as Basement take to the stage and the night’s madness truly begins. This song was a particular highlight of the night and wonderfully performed.
Playing mostly tracks from their latest release, Basement looked on strong form with all members looking like they were completely focused on what they were doing and looking transfixed in their sound. Singer Andrew Fisher’s vocal’s, at times, were merky and unclear but this is a feature common of a lot harder bands’ gigs as heavy guitars filled with distortion tend to be the significant sound. Another dip in the performance for those who closely follow basement was the lack of feature of their first album, ‘I Wish I Could Stay Here,’ after only one track from this album was played. But the latest album is definitely one for the fans with a strong grungy feel, emotive tracks that link to feelings of separation and isolation, but also has strong melodic sense that makes listeners want to sing along.
Highlighting tracks from the night included ‘Spoiled,’ ‘Covet,’ ‘Keepsafe,’ and the night’s closing track ‘Promise Everything.’ Another wonderful feature of the night was the crowd’s antics. With crowd-surfers constantly filling the view, it was obvious attendees were really enjoying themselves. There were points in the set were crowd surfers were 4 a-piece and actually starting to surf over one another. The mosh pit seemed to cover half of the room and folk involved were letting loose.
Basement put on a wonderful night with hard-core sounds to a hard-core crowd. A band not for the faint hearted but for those who are in need of vent. With a new enjoyable new album, definitely a group for rockers and alternative music fans to dive into.