LIVE REVIEW: Against The Current, Daydreamers, SWG3 TV Studio, Glasgow, 30/10/2026
Photo Credit: Maryleen
When we found out that Against The Current (ATC) would be kicking of their tour in Glasgow we were delighted and even more delighted when the album was actually released on the same day as the first show, but the fans needn’t have worried about not knowing the new songs as five tracks had already been pre-released from Till Death & Back. Billed as the fifteenth anniversary tour it has been eight years since ATC released second album Past Lives so the fanbase have turned up in anticipation of hearing songs of new and old.
Before that though we have support Daydreamers who have themselves released an album this year, a debut one in fact with Have You Tried Screaming? When we arrived at SWG3, Daydreamers were already on the stage and right in the middle playing Beautiful Agony, a personal choice from the aforementioned album. Beach House is another one we enjoyed whilst the band’s most streamed track Call Me Up hits all the right notes. The crowd haven’t been moving much until now but that all changes for Start Living as frontman Hugh Riley-Smith tells everyone to get down as low as they can before jumping up at a count of three, that’s more like the energy we are looking for. Daydreamers head out on a UK tour in December and are well worth checking out. 7/10
At 8.30pm guitarist Dan Gow, drummer Will Ferri and touring musicians take to the stage but there are some gremlins in the works during the intro to Fortune Favors The Brave, they try again one minute later. Chrissy Costanza bounds on to the stage quickly after them with her usual high energy and straight into Fortune Favors The Brave, one of the lead tracks from Till Death & Back. Chrissy has an amazing vocal range as we hear during Dead Man Walking, a personal favourite from the latest record, we were on the sixth listen to Till Death & Back on the walk over to the West End and every song hits hard.
We were sure that ATC played in this very SWG3 TV Studio the last time they rolled into town and after a quick check with Dr Google we can confirm that they did indeed play their last Glasgow show here on 4th December 2023 … now that was some night, we wonder if tonight can live up to that performance? The set easily moves from brand new tracks to the more familiar ones such as Again & Again and Voices, the latter of those two gets a decent response from the audience tonight, Chrissy is also under doctors orders to refrain from the neck spins and head movements. The new songs are the ones that impress us tonight mostly, there is nothing better than hearing new songs from a favourite band, Always You & I and White Noise are being played live for the first time in Glasgow and they both hit hard. They would eventually play six from Till Death & Back, Heavenly was on the setlist but left out for some reason.
A lot of the crowd would want to hear the most popular ATC tracks so they would have been happy to hear Wildfire, Lullaby and Blindfolded, Ashes To Glory and there are plenty of singalong moments for the crowd to participate in. Protégé is also making its live debut tonight and is the last of the main set. There are three songs in the encore kicking off with the ever popular Legends Never Die, this is the most recognised ATC song by far as it featured in the League Of Legends World Championships in 2017 and has no less than seven hundred and eighty million streams! Paralyzed follows on from this keeping the energy levels high in the crowd and we couldn’t think of a better song to end the nineteen-track set than Weapons, the fast-paced pop punk song is delightful to hear played live again. Speaking personally the new tracks sat in really well beside the older numbers and even though the album was only released on the date of the show it didn’t really make the show all the more special.
After the UK tour ATC head over to Europe for twelve dates and follow this up with a trip to Australia for a couple of shows. We would love to see them back in the UK for festival season next year. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
