LIVE REVIEW: Viagra Boys, Boko Yout, Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, 05/05/2025
Photo Credit: Fredrik Bengtsson
A sweaty bus journey from Manchester to Glasgow on this bank holiday Monday allowed us time to get up to speed with Viagra Boys as all albums were listened to back-to-back making the journey a bit more pleasant. The weather in Glasgow is still as good as it was when we left on Saturday making the mile long walk along Argyll Street to The Barras very enjoyable as we looked forward to our fourth night of music in a row … and what better way to spend it other than with some post-punk mayhem from Stockholm’s very own Viagra Boys. The Swedish band released their fourth album viagr aboys just over a week ago on 25th April and we would get to hear eight of the tracks from that one alongside others from Cave World, Street Worms and Welfare Jazz.
Fellow Stockholm artist Boko Yout were the support for the UK leg of viagr aboys: the infinite anxiety tour and we are glad we got down early to catch their set … the band themselves define their music as Afro Grunge. Although that is a decent definition there are moments of punk and indie rock thrown in as well, if you take the music of Bob Vylan and mix it up a little with SOFT PLAY then you will get an idea of what Boko Yout are all about. Before new track Nine To Five (no it’s not a cover of the Dolly Parton song) vocalist Paul Adamah tells us that he woke up to an email from his arts college professor telling him that he had been kicked off his course, it sounded like he didn’t give a shit though as he asked if anyone in the crowd had any jobs going! Latest releases IMAGINE and IGNORED sounded great live as the frontman was so energetic on the stage and had moments in among the mosh pit too while the bass player is standing on a huge speaker playing away. The crowd are now well warmed up for the main act. 8/10
There was only one venue in Glasgow that would suit a Viagra Boys tour … the famous Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom with its seemingly permanent sticky spring-loaded floor that would be put to good use tonight! The capacity crowd let out a collective cheer when Viagra Boys took to the stage and launched straight into Man Made Of Meat from the latest album viagr aboys, vocalist Sebastian Murphy is bouncing around the stage keeping the crowd fired up and it’s ‘taps aff’ already as he shows off his impressive set of tattoos. On our side of the stage we had Elias Jungqvist who was helping to keep the energy pumping within the crowd, they needn’t have worried about that as every single person in the room was transfixed on the stage. This is followed by Slow Learner, Waterboy and Punk Rock Loser and the first mosh pits and crowd surfing of the night begin, we then move on to a few from the latest record with Dirty Boyz and Uno II getting a decent reaction considering the album was only released a week ago.
The set continued with Pyramid Of Health and Trodlodyte that we reckon are two of the best of the eighteen-track set, USA born Murphy is an absolute showman and know too well how to work a crowd into mayhem as he does during both these songs. Ain’t Nice is the only one played from the Welfare Jazz album while ADD is another standout, by the time they play crowd pleaser Sports there is so much energy coming from every musician on the stage, this one has more dance vibes taking things to another level.
The two-track encore is very intense as the crowd know the night is quickly coming to an end, The Bog Body from the viagr aboys album is followed by Worms, thus ending a highly charged night of music. After the London show the following night the Viagra Boys tour moves on to Europe and North America. Catch them if you can. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
