Glass Animals @ The Liquid Room, 9 Mar
It’s pineapples-aplenty on the second sold-out night in Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms, with the Glass Animals' favourite prickly fruit littering the cramped stage. Before we can indulge in tropical fruits, however, Roosevelt are up channelling the same kaleidoscopic colour of their tourmates, albeit with heavy synth in place of Glass Animals’ bass. With all of the band dressed completely in white, they play a tight set that demonstrates why they were chosen for the support slot. The already busy crowd lapped up their vibrancy, Phoenix-like quirkiness and Django Django-esque pace. At times it was perhaps a little too familiar, but this is a band whose confidence and skills in a live setting makes up for any shortcomings in originality.
An already busy crowd swells to capacity in anticipation for the main event, as Glass Animals come on stage to the sort of reception reserved for arena-fillers. Singer Dave Bayley spots the pineapples in the crowd – “I see you brought my favourite fruit!” – to a screaming response. They launch into Season 2 Episode 3, a favourite from most recent album How to be a Human Being. Its glitchy video game samples and popping bass see Bayley body-popping to his heart’s content, while the crowd blast out favourite lines: “My girl eats mayonnaise, from a jar when she’s gettin blazed.” It all contributes to Glass Animals’ undeniable sense of fun, a characteristic that infuses everything in their live show.
The Other Side of Paradise’s opening woofs and heavy bass gets people moving, as does the anthem for modern youth, Life Itself: “I can't get a job so I live with my mum / I take her money but not quite enough / I sit in the car and I listen to static / she said I look fat but I look fantastic,” is an audience favourite and one of the set’s most exhilarating moments. Another is Gooey, the lead single off first album ZABA. Its squelchy tropical grooves are irresistible on record and are even more so tonight, made complete by a jangly solo good enough for The Byrds.
The main set wraps up all too quickly, but a two song encore has some treats in store. Adoration for Bayley has been sky-high all night, but reaches new levels when he walks among the crowd for a cover of Kanye’s Love Lockdown. It’s sultrier and sexier than the original, the frontman managing to maintain face despite the hordes tugging at every limb and loose piece of clothing. The band close in resplendent fashion with Pork Soda, with the words “pineapples are in my head” set to be the earworm of everyone there for the foreseeable future.