Live Review: All Them Witches and The Great Machine

All Them Witches | facebook | twitter | bandcamp |

Support: The Great Machine | website

Classic Grand, Glasgow | October 8, 2016

Sometimes you face the dilemma of having to choose between two great gigs and you wish the promoters would just come together and merge the bills into a great all-dayer or mini festival. Last Saturday was one of those nights with All Them Witches playing the Classic Grand and Yob & Black Cobra playing at the G2, both in Glasgow. Having seen Yob before I decided to go to the All Them Witches show, mostly because their last album Dying Surfer Meets His Maker has been stuck in my ears ever since I received the promo.

It wasn’t the most relaxed start All Them Witches could have wished for, with the band stuck in motorway traffic and therefore arriving at the venue with just over an hour to spare before the start of their set. The perils of a touring band I suppose, but when you’re being on the road this much I suppose you learn quickly to turn the switch and get into the zone.

The Great Machine from Tel Aviv in Israel had the honour of supporting All Them Witches on this tour and with no local support on the bill they kicked off the night shortly after the doors opened. It wasn’t the best promoted show if I’m honest with you and I only found out 3 days before that The Great Machine was supporting, so I hadn’t had the time to fully digest their music. But from what I’d heard on their Bandcamp page sounded like quite raw, almost garage-like stoner rock. I actually wasn’t overly impressed with their online recordings on first impression, however live this band is a complete different beast. They were a heavy psych, stoner ‘machine’ who impressed greatly with their stage present and heavy, fuzzy sound. They played with loads of passion and more importantly, they seemed to have the time of their live on stage, something which is always addictive and it wasn’t before long that the majority of the audience was nodding their heads along to the groove.

The Great Machine

Then All Them Witches came on stage to set up their mostly vintage looking gear. This was their second time this year that they toured the UK and played Glasgow, which is quite impressive as loads of overseas touring bands do not always tour in the UK, and if they do they sometimes seem to forget about this tiny wee country called Scotland up north. Anyway, it was great to see many people present at the show at this stage, which was especially relieving as I expected a lot of people to choose for the Yob show.

The band started with ‘Dirt Preachers’ from Dying Surfer Meets His Maker before they played a string of songs taken from their previous album Lightning at the Door, namely ‘Charles William’, ‘The Death of Coyote Woman’, the beautiful ‘When God Comes Back’ and ‘Mountain’. During the first couple of songs I got the feeling the late arrival might initially have affected their performance as they really seemed to need a few songs to warm up. But as a good diesel engine does, they clearly got better and better during their set, playing a very captivating, and at times intimate set.

All Them Witches

Next they played ‘Open Passageways’, followed by ‘Talisman’, one of my personal favourites and both taken again from Dying Surfer Meets His Maker. By this stage in the set the band was totally in the zone and the audience played their part by respecting the band fully, especially during the quieter moments such as the opening part of ‘Talisman’.

We were told that they have been working on a new album, which is scheduled for a release sometime in February next year (Yay!), and they continued playing a new song called ‘3-5-7’, which increased my excitement to hear their new album even more. They followed on with a couple of older songs, ‘The Marriage of Coyote Woman’ (Lightning at the Door) and ‘Elk Blood Heart’ (from the older release Our Mother Electricity) before ending their set with a fantastic version of ‘Blood and Sand / Milk and Endless Waters’ from Dying Surfer Meets His Maker.

After a short round of applause and the standard requests for ‘one more tune’ the band ended the night with a very memorable version of ‘Heavy Like a Witch’, the opening track of Our Mother Electricity, which literally stunned the audience. What a way to finish their set!

Afterwards I realised I had made the right choice to see All Them Witches instead of Yob (who were also phenomenal from what I’ve heard people say the next day!). This was a special night from a band who will no doubt grow into a much bigger and well-known unit if they continue what they’ve been doing these last couple of years. Go and see them in a smaller venue now when you still have the chance!

Scroll down below for live footage taken by TheFudlip!