Review by Jennie Macfie
Celtic Connections 2009: Treacherous Orchestra
ABC, Glasgow, 31 January 2009
Treacherous Orchestra
IT SHOULDN’T WORK. Thirteen 20-something musicians, all male, all with multiple other commitments and no overall director sounds like a blueprint for chaos, dissension and dissipation. And yet it does work – and it works magnificently….
Rehearsals for this gig began way back in November, have been regular and mandatory since, and by golly, it shows in the end result, which is as tightly disciplined as any military pipe band and yet retains the irreverent verve and panache of punk. Decisions at every level are taken collectively and if there is dispute it is put to the vote in an exemplary display of musical communism.
The ABC is packed out as the band arrive on stage, barely perceptible in the dim murkiness. The lights stay down as the music starts, pounding crescendo chords with more than a nod to Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’. Plain white spotlights gradually brighten, picking out each musician and gradually revealing them in all their sharply-dressed glory.
Yes, at long last, the words ‘dress code’ have been spoken in the trad world. Suits, ties and oh my goodness, Innes Watson and Adam Sutherland are wearing Rude Boy pork pie hats, while pipers Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton are wearing military piping jackets. Not a charity shop hand-me-down, slept-in-the-past-two-nights crumpled rumple to be seen, a visual confirmation of the seriousness with which these young men have been taking this mission.
But it’s the music that really says it all. Relentless thumping rock rhythms or reggae beats, jazz inflections, wailing pipes and whirling Eastern scales and modes, it’s all here in the mix. They’ve listened to everything – Zeppelin, The Clash, Frank Zappa, Clifton Chenier, Daft Punk, the Riverdance soundtrack, The Specials, Abba, Faithless, the Velvet Underground, David Bowie and David Byrne – the list must be endless, and they’ve watched pioneers Blazin’ Fiddles, Shooglenifty, Peatbog Faeries and the towering genius that was Martyn Bennett into the bargain.
Now they’ve mashed those disparate elements up and taken it to the next level. This is the music of young people who’ve come through the Feis movement, who love playing tunes from the Celtic past with reverence and affection, but are equally partial to a weekend of raving at Knockengorroch or Rock Ness. It’s not a cynical, commercially inspired attempt to crossover to the mainstream, it’s their music and it’s coming up from the heart. You may not get it, but if you do, you’ll love it.
The proof of the pudding is in the playing. The day after the ABC gig, they’re at the Fruitmarket for the Sunday Herald’s 10th birthday party, then finish up what is probably the last ever Festival Club closing night at the Quality Hotel. Three demanding gigs in just over 24 hours, but the tightness and polish is still there, in spades.
Can that be Peter Tickell and Mairearad Green crowdsurfing? The Mairearad Green whose lovely purely traditional New Voices commission had entranced us all earlier in the day? Indeed it can. The Club has transmogrified into an ecstatic festival moshpit, Eddi Reader is watching from the wings with an expression that in this light looks slightly rueful, because this weekend, the baton has been passed on – I’ve seen the future, and it’s Treacherous.
© Jennie Macfie, 2009
