.alan's story.

- 03/22/02 - Barrowlands, Glasgow

There's frenzy about the city, as people eye each other up on the underground, buses and on the streets, wondering if they're all headed in the same direction; If they, or indeed their counterpart sitting opposite is cool and hip enough! There's a certain noise about, you can even kind of smell it.

As a sparkling cloak of dark blue starts over the sky, you can begin to see the source of the increasingly irritable noise that's plaguing the city. In the distance there's some bright lights that look almost fun-fair like. As you get closer there's a growing amount of activity!

"TIK-ITS, ony spare TIK-ITS lads"-"Gee ye sixty poun mate"
This is just the first tout! Who can guess what price it'll reach by the time we get close enough to make out what the lights say! We already know what they say really, and why they seem especially bright tonight just like every other flare wearing, cool sock bearing hipster type in Glasgow knows.

Barrowlands! The Strokes!

As we get inside you can see the first people who came in to the hall who've tried to swagger to the front; but struggling with their anticipation couldn't help but run.

bzz... bzzz... bzzzzz...

c'mon c'mon, not even the support act yet!

bzz... bzzz... bzzzzz...

Your legs can't help but dance, not in a cool smooth choreographed kinda way, but in a more "i..." "i..." "n-e-e-d..." dry mouth sort of way!

Suddenly your head starts to get this need to swivel from side to side!

c'mon... c'mon! WAHEY! the support is coming on!

wander when thee ehh...

wander when thee ehhm..

the ehhh.... woh!

Who cares when the strokes are on man... these guys kick ass!

Listen to that guitar sound! what did you say they where called? LONGWAVE?!

"mental note" "Keep flyer!"

And so longwave where on stage.

Song after song of emotion, with just enough raw edge and smooth plastic coating. A fresh energy that i've been aching to see at a big band gig for a long time! A front man who seemed to run about and judder enough for at least two other full bands, never mind his solid rhythmed and suitably engrossed band mates! One of these groups you probably shouldn't look at for fear of getting so gripped by one part you might miss the others!

i can remember being so energized by the performance, that i just couldn't stop thinking about it, the rest of the show kind of seemed like a nice warm down in comparison. Only problem was that i got so into the gig that was hardly able to remember the songs!

And so when i got home that night, i looked the flyer out from my sweat soaked pocket anxious to listen and see if what i'd just heard was a one off or if i'd just made it all up in my head cos i was so desperate for something sOOO good. However, my fears where quashed about ten minutes later when i got to hear some recorded longwave on the net, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up for the second time that night!

Longwave must surely go far!