Grandaddy – O2 ABC, Glasgow 30/08/12

With a simple “hello” from Jason Lytle, Grandaddy were back. Six years on from a breakup due to wanting to get off the party bus and sick of not making any money the, to quote the liner notes of 1997’s Under the Western Freeway, “rockers” – Aaron Burtch (the drummer being the only one still sporting an excellent full beard), Tim Dryden, Jim Fairchild, Kevin Garcia and Jason Lytle – have reunited for a series of gigs and festival shows that guarantees the members a wad of cash and, seemingly on tonight’s evidence, a blooming good time.

Grandaddy was a special band, and remains so. I remember buying Under the Western Freeway back in ’97, principally because it rarely left my stereo that year, along with Mogwai’s Young Team and Super Furry Animals’ Radiator. For all its brilliance, it was surpassed by 2000’s The Sophtware Slump, one of the finest and most touching records of the past twenty-odd years and the only record you need to own about modern technology and the human condition. Following Sumday and Just Like the Fambly Cat, the band called it quits in 2006 for the aforementioned reasons, with Lytle continuing to release solo music after moving to the isolated wilds of Montana. Speaking to Lytle before the show, he admitted that getting back together with the other members would seem like a strange choice for someone who likes spending a lot of time by themselves but then this was five “dear friends who’d shared a million good times together”, and it’s obvious the pull of being around the rockers again was too much to resist.

With a beefier sound than before, Grandaddy blast through the crowd-pleasers like they’d never been away: the opening salvo of ‘El Caminos in the West’ and ‘Now It’s On’ is matched by the unconfined joy that meets the rendition of ‘AM 180’ and the surprise of hearing the rarities ‘Levitz’ and ‘My Small Love’.

But the best moments come on the quieter songs, reminding us that Grandaddy always did fragile fairytales and wide-eyed adventure and discovery better than most. ‘Fare Thee Not Well Mutineer’ is an early treat, Lytle’s high voice still always on the verge of breaking, singing “the grass was always greener” with more resonance than before, then breaking collective hearts with the emotional double-whammy of ‘Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)’ and ‘So You’ll Aim Towards the Sky’ and leaving the stage for the first time after the most wonderful version of ‘Laughing Stock’.

Coming back for the encore, Lytle tells us there was two more songs, one of which was a cover by a band that didn’t exist anymore, before quipping “I have a certain appreciation for bands that don’t exist anymore” and launching into a fine version of Pavement’s ‘Here’ (“I was dressed for success / but success it never comes”) before ending, like we all knew they would, with the band’s best song ‘He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s the Pilot”, the perfect way to end what was a brilliant comeback.

When I asked Lytle if there were any plans beyond the tour, such as new music, he answered by saying he wanted to make a new Grandaddy record because he wanted to hear what a new Grandaddy record would sound like…but it had to be on his terms. It remains to be seen whether this will happen, and I have some doubts, but for now Grandaddy are, to (mis)quote the lyrics of ‘AM 180’, “whatever together”.