Travis return to form

A review of Travis and the Young Aviators at the Ironworks on the 18th of November, 2013.

Support for this evening was provided by Irish band the Young Aviators and they got the evening off to a great start. They might be a reasonably new group but they played with the confidence and swagger of a main act. This wasn’t a band simply grateful to get their shot in the limelight, but three guys who were out to show us what they could do.

There was plenty of banter between them and the punters and they even managed to get a few hands in the air. Singles ‘We’ve got names for folk like you’ and ‘Forward Thinking’ are belters of indie pop rock tunes. You can catch them again at Mad Hatters on February  the 22nd.

Job done then, crowd nicely warmed up and judging by the reaction they gained a few new fans too.

I’ll be honest, Travis’ last gig in the Highlands at Belladrum in 2012 felt a bit flat to me, it just didn’t deliver the passion that I was expecting. Now I know some of you are likely cursing me saying I’m talking rot, but I felt that Travis had some work to do to win me back round… a bit shallow you might say, but there you have it, music fans and reviewers in particular are a fickle bunch.

More than hits

Tonight’s set was, as to be expected, peppered with plenty of material from the new album ‘Where You Stand‘. They could easily have given us a greatest hits set and no doubt most of us would have been happy with that. But the confidence in their new material shows and they’d be right to be, the new album is good godammit!

Starting off with album opener ‘Mother’, Healey and co deliver a ninety minute set that casts all doubts aside. ‘Reminder’ is written for Fran Healey’s kids as a list of things to do if he dies, lamenting the changes in attitudes that come from being a parent. ‘You go from being carefree to thinking “fuck,what if I die!?”‘.

Fran thanked us for bearing with them while they took an extended break, and it seems to have done them no harm at all, Dougie Payne looked effortlessly cool on bass, 50’s quiffed hair and biker jacket whilst Andy Dunlop’s guitar god showmanship was always entertaining to watch, whether it was hunched over his guitar or swinging it around like a lunatic. Rumour has it that he overdid it last month and fell badly off his guitar stack, this didn’t seem to slow him down though! They put on a ballsy show and one that was more energetic than some (me included) would have given them credit for.

‘Side’ and ‘Turn’ in particular had them ramp up the volume and proved that Travis can make a racket along with the best of them, even ‘Sing’ sounded beefier live. They were on occasion dogged by muddy sound and ‘Where You Stand’ suffered from this in particular. Loo break/bar break song was ‘Closer’, not a song I’ve ever warmed to but it seemed to go down well with everyone else! ‘Writing to Reach You’ had Andy on Rock God duty again for the guitar break

The encore included an acoustic version of ‘Flowers at the Window’ with Dougie and Andy literally sharing guitar playing duties at one point, Andy covering the chords while Dougie strummed. The amps are cranked up again for ‘All I Wanna Do is Rock’ before the night’s finale which of course was always going to be ‘Why does it always rain on me’.

Travis are back on form and sounding great.

Pictures of Travis and the Young Aviators at the Ironworks on the 18th of November.