Live Review: Mogwai, Rings Around Saturn

Remember seeing grainy footage of nuclear weapons testing, the short clip that shows a grove of pine trees being spontaneously and violently stripped of leaves and branches by shockwaves and heat? If you could somehow position a tiny camera inside the ear of someone in last night's audience, you would probably see similar punishment being administered to the delicate architecture hidden there. The terrifying magnificence of Mogwai Fear Satan, arriving late in the set, was Mogwai's nuclear option; a shocking show of force that, despite its power, left a feeling of euphoria in its wake as the buzzing faded out.

The hard-working Glaswegians were here in 2015, levelling the Opera House in celebration of 2014's Rave Tapes. Their latest LP, Every Country's Sun, has the spotlight this time around. It's a far brighter listen, a looser record that swings for the fences, and their show felt more buoyant because of it.

Opening, was Melbourne producer Rings Around Saturn: one of the multiple aliases of Rory McPike. Warm atmospherics and some deep, deep house probably aren't what come to mind when you think of Mogwai, but nevertheless McPike's pleasantly eccentric set worked well. McPike's touch was light, playing with a broad palette of texture without flooding his pieces with noise.

Mogwai's cochlea-shredding barbarism is one of their trademarks. People wear their experiences like badges, and brag about how many days it took for them to regain some hearing. And this show was no different. The usual post-rock template of quiet-loud-quiet was disrupted by their increasingly varied sound. The snarling digital paranoia of Remurdered existed on a different level to Every Country's Sun, and Rano Pano's confident stride was far brighter than the pitch-black fury of We're No Here. The sonic dynamics shifted constantly, with subtle distortion layering easy to enjoy (which is a credit to the sound desk given the volume).

While the show lacked the sheer majesty of their Opera House debut, last night's gig offered a more playful version of Mogwai than we're used to. It boasted all of the teeth gnashing you'd want, but left out the sluggish morbidity that dominates their earlier work.