Fatherson, Scala, gig review: crunching guitars and polished harmonies

After a shaky start, this Kilmarnock pop-punk three-piece quickly turn on the style and round off the evening with aplomb

Kilmarnock three-piece Fatherson quickly turned on the style

Many have worn the colours of pop-punk in recent years with varying success. It all got a bit jarring circa Fall Out Boy, 2005, but with a sound that hints at something in between Green Day and recently defunct Dry The River, Fatherson have a nourishing collection of slow-build anthems and clean-cut harmonies that might just reprieve this bloated subgenre.

Kitted out in an array of neatly-pressed patterned tops, the Scottish outfit launch straight into “Open Book”, undoubtedly the stand out track on their new album of the same name. The song is drenched in chugging guitars and an expansive chorus – punctuated by Ross Leighton’s commanding falsetto. But the instrumentation falls slightly flat here, as the sound desk initially struggles to lift the band to the polished heights of their recorded work.

However, the three-piece quickly grow in confidence, “Mine For Me” fills this boxy venue – a stone’s throw away from Kings Cross Station in London – with it’s punkish trills and turns. Bassist Marc Strain hops around the stage, and the audience obligingly fill in the gaps when Leighton expertly steps away from the mic for brief moments in the chorus. Fatherson have a knack for sing-along choruses, and “Hometown”, “Always” and “I Like Not Knowing” are just a few other examples tonight.

But they truly find their stride towards the end of the show with a strong encore that has the whole crowd calling back their lyrics once more. Leighton returns to the stage, initially alone, to perform “An Island”, before the rest of the band join in with an epic wall of crunching guitars. As he pulls away from the mic again, Leighton's powerful vibrato somehow towers over the collective muscle of the audience, which puts into question, whether he needs to bother with a mic at all. Nevertheless, it’s hard for him not to draw a smile when he realises that everyone in the room knows the words. Not bad for a band that had barely performed outside of Scotland until three years ago.

After storming through “Lost Little Boys”, Fatherson close the show with “James”. As the poignant waltz reaches its climax, the band drop their instruments and come to the front of the stage to sing with the crowd one last time. The words “Go home sober up, take the weight off your feet and just chill” reverberate around the room, and it’s a fitting end to a Thursday night gig that will no doubt carry some sore heads through the Friday morning shift.