Skillet - Glasgow - The Garage - Sunday 12 October 2014
“So how can you like The Stone Roses and Guns N’ Roses”? This is the uncensored part of a conversation I had at a Glasgow hotel following a Beady Eye concert last year with a jockey from Aberdeen. The truth is my music tastes are wide and varied and perhaps a reflection of my childhood which was spent largely between Scotland and Australia with lots of travelling in between and exposure to lots of different music (back in the days when each country generally promoted some artists from their own country in a commercial sense). Anyways, it is perhaps this childhood/teenage exposure and influence that still leads me to the odd full-on rock gig…. such as tonight with Skillet!
On their last trip to Glasgow Skillet supported Nickelback on their Hits tour and prior to attending that gig I discovered on-line; Skillet are a Christian-rock group formed in 1996 with 8 albums to date and numerous Grammy nominations to boot. That said I was still taken aback by the powerful and intense live performance by John Cooper and his band (including the flying violinist) and judging by the reaction of the crowd that night I was not the only one.
So fast forward nearly 11 months and here we are at the Glasgow Garage for a sell-out performance on the opening night of Skillet’s first ever European headline tour. Since their last visit and in the lead-up to this gig, I have been listening to the album Rise frequently and in the days before received a download of the Europe only release and compilation album Vital Signs. I have also discovered that Skillet fans known as Panheads run into the millions and recently defeated One Direction fans in an all out Twitter war! With a near 5.5MILLION ‘Facebook Likes’ and over 42 million views of their song ‘Hero’ it is not surprising that tickets for this gig were gone like hot-cakes. It was therefore with pleasure I took the opportunity to chat with lead-singer/bassist and founding father John Cooper prior to Skillet taking the stage in Glasgow.
“So how can you like The Stone Roses and Guns N’ Roses”? This is the uncensored part of a conversation I had at a Glasgow hotel following a Beady Eye concert last year with a jockey from Aberdeen. The truth is my music tastes are wide and varied and perhaps a reflection of my childhood which was spent largely between Scotland and Australia with lots of travelling in between and exposure to lots of different music (back in the days when each country generally promoted some artists from their own country in a commercial sense). Anyways, it is perhaps this childhood/teenage exposure and influence that still leads me to the odd full-on rock gig…. such as tonight with Skillet!
On their last trip to Glasgow Skillet supported Nickelback on their Hits tour and prior to attending that gig I discovered on-line; Skillet are a Christian-rock group formed in 1996 with 8 albums to date and numerous Grammy nominations to boot. That said I was still taken aback by the powerful and intense live performance by John Cooper and his band (including the flying violinist) and judging by the reaction of the crowd that night I was not the only one.
So fast forward nearly 11 months and here we are at the Glasgow Garage for a sell-out performance on the opening night of Skillet’s first ever European headline tour. Since their last visit and in the lead-up to this gig, I have been listening to the album Rise frequently and in the days before received a download of the Europe only release and compilation album Vital Signs. I have also discovered that Skillet fans known as Panheads run into the millions and recently defeated One Direction fans in an all out Twitter war! With a near 5.5MILLION ‘Facebook Likes’ and over 42 million views of their song ‘Hero’ it is not surprising that tickets for this gig were gone like hot-cakes. It was therefore with pleasure I took the opportunity to chat with lead-singer/bassist and founding father John Cooper prior to Skillet taking the stage in Glasgow.
Following the interview, I quickly
composed myself at the side of the stage and instantly I was struck by the
electric atmosphere the very packed out Glasgow Garage crowd was generating as
the impending arrival on-stage of Skillet closed in. The band took to the stage
with ‘Whispers’ before belting into ‘Forsaken’. Once again, I was struck by the
sheer intensity and outpouring of energy from the band. By the time ‘Sick Of
It’ kicked in and the crowd went into overdrive the thought began to cross my
mind…how can John Cooper keep up this vocal for the rest of tonight never mind
the rest of the tour?
With fan favourite ‘Hero’ following, I made my way upstairs to the balcony where I was able to appreciate both the atmosphere and sound from another perspective. The first thing that hit me was the complementing vocals from drummer Jen Ledger. At times John and Jen (or Jen and John, if I am being polite) appeared to duel vocally to great effect and this was lost on me in my previous experience at the Hydro. Album title track ‘Rise’ highlighted this perfectly as the adoring crowd joined the fun with shouts of “rise” as invited by John.
‘Collide’ and ‘Yours To Hold’ were also highlights before the band treated the crowd to some solos. Panheads will know, Skillet is not just John Cooper and Jen Ledger but also Korey Cooper (John’s wife) on keys/guitar and backing vocals as well as Seth Morrison on lead guitar. Listening to the solos, it is apparent that each of the core group members is both great to watch perform and very talented in their own right. Collectively Skillet is a force to be reckoned with and when joined by the flying violinist Chu and his buddy the visuals and entertainment in general is of the highest quality.
Following the solos, Skillet deliver ‘Comatose’, ‘Obsession’ and ‘Monster’ before re-emerging for curtain closer ‘Rebirthing’. As the sweat soaked crowd start to disperse I begin to reflect on what has just happened and come to a few conclusions from my observations. Firstly, the crowd is of mixed age and gender and it is clear the Skillet sound (perhaps fuelled by the mixed gender complementing vocals) is appealing to a large demographic. Secondly, despite my love for what many term British sounding live music I still absolutely love rock gigs of this nature. Finally and perhaps not surprising, I am left thinking that maybe next time Skillet return to Scotland it may well be to headline the Hydro as the number of Panheads continues to rise by the day.
Words: Bazza Mills
Twitter: @bazzamills
Skillet Full Photo Set on Flickr
With fan favourite ‘Hero’ following, I made my way upstairs to the balcony where I was able to appreciate both the atmosphere and sound from another perspective. The first thing that hit me was the complementing vocals from drummer Jen Ledger. At times John and Jen (or Jen and John, if I am being polite) appeared to duel vocally to great effect and this was lost on me in my previous experience at the Hydro. Album title track ‘Rise’ highlighted this perfectly as the adoring crowd joined the fun with shouts of “rise” as invited by John.
‘Collide’ and ‘Yours To Hold’ were also highlights before the band treated the crowd to some solos. Panheads will know, Skillet is not just John Cooper and Jen Ledger but also Korey Cooper (John’s wife) on keys/guitar and backing vocals as well as Seth Morrison on lead guitar. Listening to the solos, it is apparent that each of the core group members is both great to watch perform and very talented in their own right. Collectively Skillet is a force to be reckoned with and when joined by the flying violinist Chu and his buddy the visuals and entertainment in general is of the highest quality.
Following the solos, Skillet deliver ‘Comatose’, ‘Obsession’ and ‘Monster’ before re-emerging for curtain closer ‘Rebirthing’. As the sweat soaked crowd start to disperse I begin to reflect on what has just happened and come to a few conclusions from my observations. Firstly, the crowd is of mixed age and gender and it is clear the Skillet sound (perhaps fuelled by the mixed gender complementing vocals) is appealing to a large demographic. Secondly, despite my love for what many term British sounding live music I still absolutely love rock gigs of this nature. Finally and perhaps not surprising, I am left thinking that maybe next time Skillet return to Scotland it may well be to headline the Hydro as the number of Panheads continues to rise by the day.
Words: Bazza Mills
Twitter: @bazzamills
Skillet Full Photo Set on Flickr
SKILLET AT THE HYDRO