Gig Review: The Cooper Temple Clause/Kubichek!

Glasgow QMU, March 25, 2007

And here we are in 2007, and the sixth time this reviewer has seen the Cooper Temple Clause. The first time, in 2002 was at Edinburgh’s La Belle Angele, which burned down a few months later, and the support was Biffy Clyro (now pretty successful in their own right). So can they still cut it three albums down the line?

Probably not a question we’re going to be asking about Kubichek, if tonight’s performance is anything to go by. Though beset with sound problems, the songs just seem to be lost. The guitarist, in the words of the soon to be Mrs. 17 Seconds looked like he was wanking, to put it bluntly. There’s no stage presence, and the sound is just too reminiscent of the angular post-punk vibe that’s been done much better by the likes of The Editors and Maximo Park.

The Cooper Temple Clause however can still walk it like they talk it. They may have lost Didz Hammond to the Dirty Pretty Things, but they are so sure in themselves it looks like they’ve put it well behind them. New tracks like Damage and Waiting Game as every bit as anthemic and consistent as older numbers like Promises, Promises. Perhaps the revelation is on Once More With Feeling. The sheer intensity is a wonder to behold. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is one of Britain’s best live bands; do not take them for granted.

By the end of the gig – fantastic encores of Blind Pilots and the techno-reworking of Panzer Attack that they were playing at Edinburgh five months ago they have a new found fan in the soon to be Mrs. 17 Seconds. as we fell into bed, fifty miles away, we were still on a high. Worth the hundred mile round trip of an evening, and I’d do it again.