Wild Beasts, The Arches, Glasgow

Wild Beasts’ latest album, ‘Present Tense’, is by far their most accomplished work, and with it creates an even bigger wave of expectation going forward. Their latest tour provides a perfect platform to put this expectation to the test.

Glasgow’s Arches has always had something of a penchant for the more left field - save for the bizarre Matt Cardle gig advertised on the way in - and so Wild Beasts seem entirely at home in the venue. The guitars and the drums feel like they shape around the space, enveloping the audience within the tunnels; that is, until a sudden synth stab or unscheduled guitar freakout catches you unaware and jolts you back into reality.

Losing yourself in the show seems almost mandatory, given both the music, threatening as it does to carry you away, and the hypnotic visuals provided by their pulsing half-sun behind them. The crowd is refreshingly contrasting for a guitar band, with the usual 20-something crowd dancing next to both older and younger fans. Wild Beasts are very much born of the underground, but they’ve achieved that rarest of things - an unlikely breakthrough into the record-buying public’s conscience, without sacrificing any of the quirks that first established them.