The first thing I notice when The View come on stage is that unmistakable mop of curly hair and pointed pixie face of frontman Kyle Falconer. They may have taken a step back from music front lines and spent the last few years recording and writing, but this was a night which showed The View on the same top form as they were when we last heard them.
Opening with ‘Comin’ down’, the first song off debut album Hats off to the Buskers, established a brilliantly energetic and enthusiastic atmosphere which lasted throughout the night. Although a fairly average size, filling about half of The Duchess’ capacity, the crowd were animated from the beginning and I could see a lot of die-hard fans singing all the words. The band it seems has a small but very dedicated following.
There were moments of the surreal, when although we could judge from the tone and cadences of his voice that Falconer was speaking, his immensely strong Scottish accent meant that we had absolutely no idea what he was saying. The linguistic difficulty didn’t seem to be felt by the largely Yorkshire crowd however, who laughed along in the right places and seemed to understand just fine.
Playing a mixture of old and new during the set, one of the surprising highlights was a song off their new album, Cheeky For a Reason, to be released at the beginning of next month. Sung by guitarist Peter Reilly, there was an instant connection to the crowd through passionately sung lyrics and the catchy Indie sound The View are known for. Despite this being an unknown song, its popularity was immediate and promises a few exciting releases from this fourth studio album.
Leaving chart favourite ‘Same Jeans’ to near the end of the set, The View sounded as good as they did when they first released it. Characterised by an original mix of light pop catchiness with heavier bass and guitar riffs, they take you straight back to when Indie was exciting. Followed swiftly by ‘Superstar Tradesmen’, everyone in the crowd was dancing and screaming the words. Listening to it I was struck by the raw energy of a band which has nothing of that superficial, top-button-done-up quality of so many new ‘Indie’ bands; The View have stuck to what they’ve always done and acquired respect and a modest success story for doing so. Nowadays however, through its relative longevity, and through being a prototype of a genre which almost immediately became a cliché, this type of band is almost as strange to us as their accents.
Re: Accent – The View are from Dundee not Glasgow.