Mogwai at Portsmouth Guildhall: 'By turns beautiful and brutal' | Review
If you want Saturday night singalongs, then Portsmouth Guildhall is not the place for you when Mogwai are in town.
While the Glaswegian band may eschew the traditional rock song format, their fans know what to expect – and that is brooding, sprawling, epic post-rock.
But before we get there, opening act Forest Swords is electronica artist Matthew Barnes – one man hunched over his kit in near darkness.
His is a bass-heavy – I swear the Guildhall's fixtures were rattling – dubby, minimalist take on techno. Disjointed, distorted snatches of vocals drift in and out, just on the edge of comprehension while monochrome visuals play out behind him.
It's disorienting and delirious. I shall be checking out his extensive back catalogue in the comfort of my headphones.
Mogwai's music is mainly instrumental, and it's not something they address, but they make sure there's no doubt about their politics – an amp stage left has the trans flag on it, on the opposite side of the stage there's a Palestinian flag.
They open as last year's album The Bad Fire does, with God Gets You Back and Hi Chaos. The former eases us in (relatively) gently on washes of keys, while the latter is more typical of their sound with its ebb and flow of build and release.
When Mogwai are in full flight, there's something hypnotic about the power of the music as it envelops the audience – and it is loud, sometimes punishingly so. Trying to listen without earplugs is folly.
Ritchie Sacramento, from their surprise 2021 number one album As The Love Continues is a rare track where guitarist Stuart Braithwaite takes to the mic for a relatively conventional song.
Recent single Fanzine Made of Flesh also features his vocals, but they're heavily treated so the voice becomes another instrument in the construction of their sonic temple.
An impressive light show enhances the sense of immersion in the music.
The encore is a single song, but my god, what a song! My Father My King was a 2001 standalone single that saw the band push their ethos to its limits. From gentle interludes to the most apocalyptic of feedback-drenched soloing. It's by turns both beautiful and brutal. When the 20 minute song finally ends, the band leave the stage with the guitars still wailing from the feedback.
Awe inspiring.