BIG SOUND, LITTLE STAGE: MAN/WOMAN/CHAINSAW PUSH THE LIMITS IN GLASGOW
LIVE REVIEW | MAN/WOMAN/CHAINSAW w/ Bathing Suits | KING TUT’S WAH WAH HUT, GLASGOW | 25th September by Anne Kelly
Between Mary in the Junkyard and Gurriers through in the capital, plus the likes of Feng, Mary Coughlan, and Man/Woman/Chainsaw in Glasgow, Friday night’s clash finder was brutal for your average 6 Music Dad – or in my case, Maw.
I opted for King Tut’s, where London collective Man/Woman/Chainsaw played the most northerly date of their Cannonball tour. Having caught up with the band a few weeks prior, I knew this wasn’t their first visit to the legendary venue, but it was easily their biggest sell-out north of the border yet. Stepping up the iconic staircase, I could already feel the walls reverberating with pulsing sub-bass.
The rumble belonged to Leeds openers Bathing Suits. I hadn’t checked them out beforehand as I quite enjoy going in blind, but they certainly shattered expectations. Delivering high-energy, EDM-infused industrial punk, they were more than capable of firing up the room. Frontwoman Freyja Blevins, a 6ft+ blonde whirlwind in slim-fit jeans and a bra, didn’t stop moving for a single second. Joined by three bandmates on the relentless grooves, she brought pure electricity.
Unfortunately, the crowd wasn’t really having it. While a few heads nodded, the momentum largely fell flat. “So happy to be back in Glasgow!” Blevins called out, met with the least Glaswegian reaction imaginable: dead silence, with a couple of half-arsed polite cheers. “Do you love Glasgow?” she tried again. Tumbleweeds. “Glasgow, you should be embarrassed!” she fired back, and she wasn’t wrong. Admittedly, it was a strange billing; the bands live in very different sonic worlds, and this audience was generations away from the rave-ready set. Still, Bathing Suits won me over. Right room, wrong crowd; I promise we’re usually better than this.
There’s a common assumption that once an act signs to a major label, in this case the same home of The Cure, a sudden fleet of roadies takes over the heavy lifting. But with a six-piece crammed into Tut’s, logistics aren’t glamorous. Seeing the members personally lug gear and navigate the sold-out crowd to set up their own stage showed a welcome, grounding humility.
Walking on to 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club‘, the six bandmates packed the small stage shoulder-to-shoulder. Kicking off with ‘Only Girl’, the previously hesitant crowd snapped back into comfort mode.
Performing their debut album, Cannonball, in its re-ordered entirety, the set proved fascinating in translation. For the most part, the live renditions soared. Heavier numbers like ‘The Thing’, ‘Canyons’ and ‘Goddamn Lizard Man’ hit with real force, with Vera and Billy’s alternating vocals cutting through brilliantly. However, the mix wasn’t always kind. Perhaps due to my own proximity to the speakers, the subtler dynamics suffered. Tracks such as ‘Snakebite’ and ‘Lighter’ survived, but ‘Still Angry’ was nearly swallowed. Fortunately, Clio’s violin swept in at just the right moments to pull the melodies back above water.
What makes Man/Woman/Chainsaw so compelling is their cohesive dynamic. Despite sharing three vocalists, Billy, Vera, and Emmi, they line up alongside Clio and (the other) Billy across the lip of the stage in equal measure, with drummer Lola logistically positioned behind them. No single member dominates, yet everyone holds your attention. Clio, in particular, remained magnetic: even when her violin wasn’t required, she danced constantly, keeping the stage kinetic.
Between songs, however, their stage presence felt somewhat reserved. A bit more banter and casual interplay would have helped let their personalities shine through. But the music itself rarely lagged. Energetic cuts like ‘Get Up and Dance’ and ‘Flick of the Wrist’ hit hard, earlier tracks like ‘Ode to Clio’ and ‘Adam and Steve’ felt right at home, and new addition ‘scab’ delivered arguably the most exhilarating burst of the night.
After dropping in a cover of The Breeders’ hit and album namesake, ‘Cannonball’, the band bypassed the encore and charged straight into ‘Nosedive’. The audio gremlins finally cleared, letting the track’s intricate balance of melody and feral noise ring out as intended.
At just an hour long, it was over fast. Judging by some of the seasoned faces in the crowd, it may have been long enough for them, but I’d have happily hit replay and do the whole thing again. What’s clear is that Man/Woman/Chainsaw have outgrown King Tut’s. It’s not just a spatial issue, though six people on that stage is a tight squeeze; their sprawling, multi-layered arrangements simply need a bigger room to breathe. Give them a larger stage and cleaner acoustics, and the magic will speak for itself.
Thankfully, the memo has already dropped, and Man/Woman/Chainsaw will return even bigger in 2027. With 9 new dates on sale here, you can catch the band back in Glasgow at The Art School on May 2nd.
The sold-out Cannonball tour will continue across the UK this month and into October.
