Barry Burns from Mogwai pedalboard walkthrough

ewal

I agree. I once saw a guy stage dive from the balcony when do the loud outro bit. But the Barrowland gig was pants. It's perhaps not the easiest venue to get super-loud in.

earwighoney

thermionic said:

The relentless, brooding majesty of Mogwai Fear Satan played live is something every music fan should experience.

I've only seen Mogwai the one time, when they were touring Come On Die Young in the late 90's, and I remember them playing that (I think it was their last song), but it was Christmas Steps that stuck with me, especially when the violin player walked out for the outro.  It was fucking loud of course, but for the start and the end it was pretty quiet, they used the dynamic range incredibly well. 

I still think their first few albums have my favourite combinations of clean guitar playing offset by absolute filth. 

UnclePsychosis

I think their last few albums - which have way more synth layers on them than the early stuff - really suffer live because there's just a solid wash of non stop sound and it all just bleeds together whereas something like Christmas Steps or Mogwai Fear Satan has points where a single musician is playing a single, very quiet line so there's a lot more light and shade in the total sound. 

UnclePsychosis

Also, the "bit" in Christmas Steps where the volume comes back makes for absolutely hilarious crowdwatching - you can really spot the people who know the song intimately because anyone who doesn't almost gets knocked off their feet by the sound