Review: Yard Act play at Glasgow's O2 Academy on Dream Job tour

We went to see Yard Act play at the O2 Academy on Friday, March 15 - here's what we thought.

I was incredibly surprised to find out that the gig had sold out - the entire 1,500(~) capacity of the bottom floor of the old theatre venue was chocked full of alt-rock fans.

I was even more surprised to find out what a mixed crowd the audience was - I was expecting a gaggle of a couple hundred indie kids from across the city, instead there were folks of all ages and from all walks of life mixing together. It would seem that Yard Act's brand of everyday working-class lyricism connects with a lot more people than I thought it would, which is very encouraging to see.

For context, I found Yard Act at random on Spotify during the pandemic through their single 'Fixer Upper' released in 2020. I hadn't been following the band too closely, but I knew if they were coming to Glasgow I had to see them live.

As it turns out, I probably should have kept an eye on them - unlike many bands that lost so much of their upwards momentum due to the pandemic - it seems Yard Act exploded out onto the live scene once we were all allowed to start putting on gigs again.

They opened the main stage at the Reading & Leeds Festival in the summer of 2023, and headlined the BBC Sounds stage at Latitude. They've even managed to build up an American audience while I wasn't paying attention, as they continue to play headline shows across the US and Mexico.

The band brought along New York band Gustaf for support, who admittedly I had never heard of. I didn't think much of them to begin with, writing them off as a shoegaze band from their first song - that very quickly exploded into a high-energy set, it really was a night full of surprises.

I'm not sure if many other people in the crowd had heard of the New Yorkers - anecdotally I would say no, that's not to say they didn't hold the audiences attention, as everyone I spoke to seemed to really enjoy their set. They kept that forward momentum for the gig, which set the stage nicely for Yard Act to play.

Yard Act were much better live than I had ever expected them to be. Given their almost spoken-word delivery on the songs I was familiar with I expected the energy to keep a steady medium pace throughout the night - though I couldn't be more wrong, which was starting to become a theme on Friday night.

It was an incredibly high-energy set that just kept ramping up culminating in a couple of mosh pits towards the end of the gig - led perfectly by the band.

A lot of bands have been putting a lot more stock into audience interaction and participation, vis a vis The Last Dinner Party, and it's been interesting to see. Of course most bands will chat to their audience, giving it the whole 'Glasgow's the best city in the world!' act, but there was more to it than that for Yard Act.

The best example of this I can remember was bringing an audience member up on stage to spin a wheel that would decide which song from the bands original breakout singles they would play. Unfortunately it was not Fixer Upper as I had hoped, but I was in no way let down with the rest of the set.

I brought along a friend who hadn't heard of Yard Act before, but gave a few of their old singles a listen, he said their songs sounded 'all a bit the same' - which I couldn't fault, from what I had heard also the singer kept the same cadence and tone in his voice for most songs - but the new album was a game-changer.

I've not stopped listening to Where's my Utopia? since I went to the gig, admittedly I hadn't listened to a single song from the album before the concert on Friday so it was incredible to hear the new tunes for the first time live.

To the best of my knowledge this is the fifth time the band have played a headline show in Glasgow, growing in venue size year-on-year. They first played a major set in Glasgow with their show at the Great Western Festival in 2021, before going on to headline Mono, St. Luke's, and the Queen Margaret Union in 2022, and then the Barrowlands in 2023.

The lights were on point for both the support and headliner - and we can't ever fault the sound in the Academy, despite some other issues with the space for the casual gig-goer.

The only real complaint I have about the gig is the venue, personally I can't stand the O2 Academy. That's not the fault of the band or even the booker however, Happy Mondays were playing the Barrowlands - something the band themselves even lamented on stage, wishing they could be there instead.

They said the gig at the Barrowlands was the second-best show they've played - after a concert they played in Japan towards the end of last year.

Don't get me wrong, the acoustics of the historic old theatre on Eglinton Street are great - it's an interesting venue set over two levels (though the top floor was shut for Yard Act) - but the prices have just gotten outrageous. Not to sound too moany or tight, but £16+ for two single vodka mixers is frankly insane.

Thankfully like any self-respecting Glaswegian on Paddy's Day weekend we popped into the The Laurieston for a couple pints of Guinness before the show. I still can't get over those prices though.