Mogwai live in Portsmouth - 18-minute classic steals the show

It’s been 23 years since Mogwai were in Portsmouth. A nook on England's south coast, off the beaten touring track for bands of their size, the post-rock legends returned nearly a quarter of a century later to the Guildhall on Saturday, February 21.

The prestigious setting, albeit with the circle closed off, suits the Glasgow outfit. The band sonically destroy historic settings across the world, densely packing in as much noise into the stream of their set. The neoclassical building was taken to another place entirely.

Mogwai return to Portsmouth promoting their album The Bad Fire, an interesting continuation of their Mercury Prize nominated 2021 release As The Love Continues. The band’s recent releases have been more accessible and some of the singles wouldn’t be out of place on the radio (‘Ritchie Sacramento’) - a far cry from a support slot in America where they played a whopping two songs given their length.

The band are riding high off the viral edit of *that* Prince Andrew photo on cover of their album Come On Die Young, summarising the band’s ability to have humour - a rifle through their song names will confirm this.

But the show was not a pop effort. Flanked by a trans pride flag at stage right and a Palestinian flag stage left, songs topped ten minutes, each like a well-constructed anecdote, intricately building and building until the ever the same punchline of distortion and noise. The atmosphere was only punctured by Stuart Braithwaite’s sincere, happy ‘thank you’ between most songs.

The band’s showpiece, however, came in the encore - five left stage and only four came back immediately, as Braithwaite played the riff of Mogwai’s 2001 single which charted as an EP given its length.

Setting my stopwatch, I locked in for the brutal experience. The song peaks and troughs and peaks again, this time clocking in at 18 minutes - the radio edit!

Barry Burns observes the crowd, then his bandmates, with the solemn look of a gravedigger ahead of the final wall of noise, almost knowing what he has to do before ear-splitting fuzz envelopes the 19th century building.

Hanging his guitar on the microphone stand as if giving it a medal, Braithwaite walks off stage as if the monstrous track never happened and Mogwai disappear, having knowingly made their mark.

Mogwai aren’t just noisy, or simply just good, they’re important. The band are still the best to do it among their peers, bolstered by their relative accessibility through humour, texture and fun.

Mogwai played:

God Gets You Back

Hi Chaos

Friend of the Night

May Nothing but Happiness Come Through Your Door

If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others

Ritchie Sacramento

How to Be a Werewolf

Rano Pano

Auto Rock

Fanzine Made of Flesh

Remurdered

Lion Rumpus

My Father, My King