Review of General Fiasco, with support from City In Surveillance and Purple Divide at The Ironworks, Inverness,on Wednesday 9th May 2012, by Thomas Bisset. Photographs by Thomas Bisset.
First on stage tonight were Purple Divide on a second outing to the Ironworks, the last time supporting Fatherson where their relative inexperience showed somewhat. Now, it’s significantly improved, despite some slight issues vocally in a few songs: on occasion, it was clear lead singer and guitarist Daniel Gunn was not singing loudly enough to be picked up by his microphone – which was a little annoying because when he did, they weren’t bad at all. For those who haven’t seen them, think of a young Soundgarden; I’ve little doubt they would have sounded not far off Purple Divide’s current sound when they first started gigging.
City In Surveillance are a little trickier to pin down though. Kicking off the set in frenetic fashion, it sounded very much like a mish-mash of styles from glam-rock to punk all cobbled together in a manner that bizarrely seems to work quite well. With only one “ballad” (in actual fact, just a slightly slower-than-usual song) their set was successful in getting everyone excited for the evening’s entertainment.
When asked about how he’d describe General Fiasco, one punter’s singular response of “indie” seemed just a little unhelpful, but as the night went on it turns out he wasn’t far off the mark (and to be fair, he was in the middle of chatting someone up – a curt response should have been expected). The four-piece from Northern Ireland needed no introduction with most of the seventy or so folk – mostly young and female – who came along tonight perfectly aware of most of the band’s material, singing along with most tracks at (mostly) the appropriate times.
“Indie” is possibly a term a little over-used in this day and age, but for these lads it’s about as close as you’ll get. A little bit heavier than Dog Is Dead, but not quite as much as Sound Of Guns; very much in the same vein as the Dykeenies and Twin Atlantic. “Rock” and “Pop” would also be doing General Fiasco a disservice. “Alternative Power Pop” is probably the best approximation that could be made, and listening to “I’m Not Made Of Eyes” – apparently a fan favourite, and probably the stand out track of the night – confirms it.
Very much the overriding feeling of the night, from someone not usually into bands like this, was that General Fiasco were already playing to converts. Yes, there was new material there but it didn’t really differ from the rest; occasionally a gig needs a little bit of risk just to push it from being good to great. With that said, there was also precious little wrong with the set, and the people who came along certainly left knowing their money was well spent.
Put it this way. It was this or Britain’s Got Talent: Not a difficult choice.
Setlist:
Waves
We Are The Foolish
Don’t You Ever
I’m Not Made Of Eyes
Roads
Bad Habits
Hollows
Please
Rebel Get By
Dancing
Ever So Shy
Bottom
Sinking Ships
Friends
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