THE LIBERTINES // BARROWLAND BALLROOM, GLASGOW
Doherty and Barât, kept it together long enough to make a rowdy crowd scream and shout for the boys in the band, with sell out shows up and down the country, their latest tour is a success.
THE LIBERTINES PERFORMING AT DUNDEE’S CAIRD HALL - 06.12.2019
PICTURE BY: | CALUM BUCHAN PHOTGRAPHY
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5)
If someone had spoken of The Libertines reuniting and returning to the music industry 10-15 years ago then they would have had to face a response of laughter. However, despite all the turbulence that has been between the band’s leads Peter Doherty and Carl Barât, it seems as though they will always come boomeranging back to each other. With the band’s initial hiatus in the mid-2000s, both front-men went on to form new groups, with Doherty leading Babyshambles and Barât launching Dirty Pretty Things. However, they couldn’t be kept apart and, after a couple sets together since the split, they officially reformed in 2014.
Always keen for an unexpected venture, in 2016 The Libertines turned their attention to a 10-room hotel in Margate which now seems to be open for business. Doherty also has been working with new band The Puta Madres and Barât experimented with group formed through a Facebook search that became Carl Barât and The Jackals. Doherty has toured hard this year, playing a solo set in compact Glasgow venue King Tuts and playing with The Puta Madres in the Queen Margret Union. Two, back-to-back, Barrowlands shows were included in The Libertines 2019 winter tour which both sold out quickly.
Doherty’s sunny disposition shone out from the get-go. He carries with him a surly charm as he sways about the stage with all the confidence of a blackout drunk but not quite as much sloppiness. Barât is his classically more angular self with a colder air to him. Bassist John Hassall looks sturdy but also seems glued to the floor. Coming out to early tool-shed whacker ‘Delaney,’ the arena was thrown in to frenzy.
Anyone familiar with the band knows that no track is anywhere near a replica when played live. There is a sense of playfulness as Doherty amends timings to his own temperament but it took the band nearly half a set to find their bemusing rhythm. ‘Barbarians’ and ‘Fame and Fortune,’ numbers that sound like they’re straight from The Clash’s back catalogue, bridged into the disordered with their sound. But with Up the Bracket belter ‘Boys in the Band’ and the tender ‘You’re My Waterloo’ the crowd were well and truly back on their side.
Fan-favourite ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ had a no f**** given punch. Doherty’s pitchy shout blares into the mike and a sea of arms raised into the air. He taunts the audience but his affection is clear. The relationship between him and Barât also looks to be filled with genuine affection. During the wearisome ‘Dead For Love’ Doherty hung over piano that Barât played and they sung to each other.
The night finished with a run of their biggest hits before a long encore of even more treasured tracks. Playing almost two dozen tracks, their set highlighted just how many knockout tracks The Libertines have created. The two front-men embrace and the crowd are riot of delight. Nothing will be polished and really anything might happen at a gig by the group, and that is why people flock to see The Libertines, and Doherty for that matter. Quite frankly, if a messy, carefree night is what you fancy then you will in heaven and, paired with slathers of slurred emotion, you will likely be uplifted. The band is not pulling the breaks anytime soon and their efforts are certainly valiant.
SETLIST: | THE LIBERTINES : BARROWLAND BALLROOM, GLASGOW - 07.12.2019
The Delaney
Heart of the Matter
Horrorshow
Barbarians
Fame and Fortune
Boys in the Band
You’re My Waterloo
The Saga
Vertigo
Can’t Stand Me Now
Last Post on the Bugle
The Ha Ha Wall
Gunga Din
Up the Bracket
What Became of the Likely Lads
Death on the Stairs
Time for Heroes
ENCORE:
What Katie Did
What a Waster
The Good Old Days
Don’t Look Back Into the Sun
Music When the Lights Go Out