Sleeper

Sleeper

Mar 30

NO SLEEP TIL SAUCHIEHALL STREET

When: 21 March 2019

Where: The Garage

Support: Catholic Action

This was the first gig on Sleeper’s tour to promote their new album The Modern Age, although I suspect most of the mainly 40 year olds in the audience were here to hear the songs from the 90s albums that made the band’s name. Having said that, the songs from their first album in 22 years are generally good and more than hold their own in the set.

Louise Wener has lost none of her charm and command fronting the band – her singing is great and for most of the gig she has a broad smile, engaging with ease with the crowd. Original guitarist Jon Stewart and drummer Mr Wener and new bassist Kieron Pepper give her impressive support. It really could be 1996!

The highlight of the set is their cover of Blondie’s ‘Atomic’ which is cleverly segued into Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ – The Garage rocks wildly in appreciation. Opener’s ‘Nice Guy Eddie’ and ‘Delicious’, ‘Factor 41’. ‘Inbetweener’ and encore closer ‘Sale of the Century’ are also excellent’. I really enjoyed new songs ‘The Modern Age’, ‘Look At You Now’ and ‘Sun Also Rises’ (see sample video below) – they ensured that the evening was not purely an exercise in nostalgia.

It was a hugely enjoyable evening and great to see that after a couple of decades the band (surely one of the most underrated of the Britpop era – and Louise definitely under-rated as a songwriter) still have got what it takes both as a recording force and as a live act.

Band Page

Sample Video