Skunk Anansie @ O2 Academy, Glasgow 15th November 2010

Drummer Danny Dolan is one of those drummers that look like they just can't get comfortable as he was bouncing around on his drumstool like a man possessed while keeping perfect time (which is surprising if you watch him!). They reminded me of a cross between The Hives, the Swedish rock band, and Led Zeppelin which can't be a bad thing eh? They went down fairly well with the amassing SA crowd and that's all I can say about them to be perfectly honest due to what was to follow.

Skunk Anansie's arrival onstage was slightly delayed but soon enough the house lights went down, a cheers went up and the white "front-drop" lit up red with three easily identifiable silhouettes visible. The intro tape ran it's course and the front-drop, erm, dropped as Skin and her boys exploded into "Yes, It's Fucking Political!" - quite an impressive start to say the very least. Then we get "Charlie Big Potato" - the opening track from their third album "Post Orgasmic Chill" released back in 1999. "Because Of You" follows - a single which was taken from the band's Greatest Hits album "Smashes and Trashes" and then we're treated to the first cut off the new "Wonderlustre" album namely "God Loves Only You" which was delivered with a certain style that is so often lacking these days. This bodes well for the rest of the gig. "All In The Name Of Pity", "100 Ways To Be A Good Girl" and another new track (and the current single) "Talk Too Much" are all swallowed up by the crowd with no hint of indegestion then we're into the semi-ballad "Over The Love" with Skin wielding her Telecaster which restricts her usual "busy" movement for a short while.

The range and power of Skin's voice is quite something and during the first half of the set she rendered her two radio mics momentarily damaged and had to use the cabled mic that was Cass's while her own mics were hurriedly fixed. Normality was restored soon enough and next up was my favourite SA song - "I Can Dream". Cass's bass intro has got to be one of the most memorable by any band and man, it sounded good live, immensley powerful along with Ace squeezing as much feedback out of his amp as he could. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I had to suppress a tear - this happens to me occasionally when I hear something that I perceive as truly awesome and this was. "The Sweetest Thing" came next, another off the new album then "Intellectualise My Blackness" off the first album "Paranoid & Sunburnt". The previous single was next, "My Ugly Boy", a quiet/loud/quiet/loud track which, to my mind, emphasised Mark Richardson's driving beat but at the same time showed off his deft touch also. I then noticed that SA's Tour Manager appear in the pit which could only mean one thing - Skin was about to go walkies.

Sure enough as the opening riff to "Weak" rang around the Academy, Skin jumped down into the pit, climbed the barrier and went walkabout on the hands, heads and shoulders of the crowd. Once back onstage after the song had finished Skin thanked all of the "lovely strong Glaswegian boys" for their help before reeling off "Brazen", "My Love Will Fall", "Twisted (Everyday Hurts)" and "Feeling The Itch" in quick succession. Actually, it wasn't that quick but I was enjoying the gig so much it seemed to fly by. All too soon we arrive at the last three songs of the main set - "On My Hotel TV", "Tear The Place Up" and "The Skankheads" which took my breath away. Skunk Anansie left the stage to rapturous applause and the short wait for them to return for the encore gave me chance to go and look for my breath (which I found). They came back on with big smiles on their faces - I think they enjoyed it as much as everybody else, and Ace started the intro to "Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)" which really did get the best out of the crowd vocally, it was one massive sing song with Skin offering the crowd the mic for the first two verses. Rarely have I heard such loud crowd participation and "Hedonism" lends itself well to this.

Then, for the next track "You Saved Me" Skin explains "This is for anyone that's ever been fucked over in love, oh wait, that's a different song! Take no notice of me, I'm just a Southern Monkey!" to which Cass interjects "You got that wrong. It's Northern Monkey and Southern Shite". Skin ignores him with a dismissive laugh and says "this one is for anyone who found love and still has it".

To finish the show they play "Little Baby Swastikkka" during which all hell breaks loose on the dancefloor, crowd surfing, drinks flying, the whole place jumping. Skin was off into the crowd again - the pained look on the Tour Managers face suggested to me that he may be having words with Skin later! "Swastikkka" goes down an absolute storm and is a fitting end to a quite remarkable performance.

A friend said to me before I went "You'll love it, they put on a really good show". Debs - you weren't wrong, WOW!

Review by Fish