BRITS WEEK 2023: THE SNUTS
The Snuts
at Stereo in Glasgow, UK
words by Alex Shukri, photos by Cameron Brisbane
The Snuts are on fire.
These 5 words shouted from the crowd at Glasgow’s Stereo prophesied a good night, and year, ahead for this Scottish four-piece. Returning to the stage for the first time in 2023, The Snuts were a fantastic choice for the first-ever Scottish BRITs Week performance. Stereo was packed body to body with The Snuts fans old and young, ditching their coats as the room’s rising heat brought back memories of festival season.
The venue’s acoustics boosted the bass into your bones, letting the songs’ lyrics weave their way through the shouts from the ever-enthusiastic crowd, and The Snuts’ classic red lights cast the room in a hellishly fun glow.
Starting the show off with the fan-favourite ‘Glasgow’, the crowd got warmed up to sing their hearts out the whole night. The comically topical tune’s about moving from West Lothian to the ‘big bad city’ and always having a special place in your heart for home. Throughout the song you saw the band transform, the cobwebs seemed to be wiped away and the energy into each note continued throughout the night.
It really felt like you were watching 4 guys play in someone’s basement, interacting with the crowd like they were old friends rather than fans through a barrier. At certain points, you saw each of the members get lost in the music which honestly made it all that more authentic (and relatable).
The night showcased some iconic Snuts hits between sips of Buckfast like distinctive ‘All Your Friends’, stomping rock anthem ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’, inciteful ‘Burn The Empire’, joyful ‘Hallelujah Moment’, and inspiring ‘Knuckles’.
Those last three songs are off The Snuts’ 2022 genre-crashing album Burn The Empire, indicative of the album’s compassionately honest and understandably angry storytelling. It was an intelligently inciting move on behalf of The Snuts to use their albums and the show to talk about the reality of the impact socio-political issues have on peoples’ lives, the disgust for the still-continuing British Empire, and the multi-faceted reality of life as a regular person.
While some might be cautious of big bands singing and profiting off working-class struggles, this isn’t a band of nepo babies aestheticising council housing, the drug epidemic within the working class, and being anti-Monarchy and anti-Tory. This is a band from Whitburn made up of former slater/roofers, mechanics, stonemasons, and joiners that sing about the reality they, and many in the audience, have faced. And honestly, if the Snuts launched a campaign for Indy Ref 2 tonight, Scotland would be independent tomorrow. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone packed into Stereo that night who didn’t scream “F*** the Tories” every chance they could.
But their music, and the gig, weren’t just centred around spiralling in depression and anger, thinking about how the world works. In singing about the reality of the world, there’s going to be joy there. With tunes like Knuckles and Hallelujah Moment, it’s reminiscent of the few sunny spring days in Scotland, enjoying the day with your pals and realising, even for a moment, that everything’s okay.
So much of The Snuts discography has tunes that you can follow along with even if it’s your first time hearing them. Not to say their music is negatively simple, but the melodies and catchy and repeating lyrics make it easy to join in, especially if your first time listening to them is at a gig.
The Snuts’ time on stage ended only an hour after it started, with the band members somewhat sheepishly mentioning that they all got drunker than expected. You wouldn’t be able to tell if they didn’t say, each song sounded better than the Spotify recordings. So while there was no encore (much to everyone’s surprise), the thirty minutes given back gave people in the audience time to search up tickets for the next Snuts gig.
The Snuts really were on fire.
Accessibility: Stereo has a wheelchair lift from street level that gives you access to the main bar, but currently there’s no lift to the basement venue. They do say on their website that “We are however happy for all patrons and their party to attempt to access the basement venue in any manner they feel comfortable with. As a venue, we can provide advice on this.”