LIVE!
ANDREW W.K.
The Classic Grand, Glasgow 31.07.2014
Words: David Bowes// Picture: Gerald Chau
There is no such thing as an average Andrew W.K. crowd, and that’s because Andrew W.K. is far from average. Even with only a keyboard, a backing track and strutting hype man Blakey Boy to support him on his solo tour, he launches like into “It’s Time To Party” with the kind of enthusiasm normally witnessed when cats encounter expensive furniture, grinning gleefully and pumping his fist alongside his balding comrade before embarking on the first of 110
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countless piano segues, showing off his classically-trained chops while never dipping far from his ‘happiest man alive’ persona. He’s a perma-smiling joker with limitless energy, working the room into a bouncing, sweaty frenzy while doing the same to himself, yet at no point does this ever seem like an act. Even as the first of the invading crowd-surfers transfer from floor to stage, he hugs them and sings alongside them, fully ssimilated as a valued part of the team. He has a knack for immediately creating a sense of community with a room, an exuberant blend of good-natured enthusiasm and undiluted bro-ness (not always a bad thing) that draws strangers into a relaxed
yet hyper-energized mob, and that’s why the word ‘party’ will always follow him. For all his enthusiasm and gusto, for the unbridled joy of “We Want Fun” and a newly-titled “We Love Glasgow City”, the memories of tonight will be the everincreasing presence of the crowd on stage, to the point where he is dwarfed by 40-or-so bouncing, smiling singing punters. It will be of him, frantically thrashing and flailing his fists to “I Get Wet” as the floor suddenly looks very empty indeed. At one point in the night, WK declares that, “This is not a show. This is one thing, and one thing only.” That’s right, this is a party, dammit, and tonight, Glasgow partied hard.