Mastersystem break the definition of supergroup to fit their own mould

25 April 2018, 23:43 | Written by Joe Goggins

(Live)

"We're playing rock music here. It's far less physically demanding than heartbreak."

Of all people, Scott Hutchison should know. As the frontman of Frightened Rabbit, he's spent the last fifteen years, give or take, specialising in lovelorn grandiosity, so much so that, six weeks ago, he was in this same corner of town, a few hundred yards up the road, celebrating an album that dealt exclusively in entirely that.

He and his brother Grant, who's on drums tonight, pegged that show at The Ritz as one of the greatest of their lives, one that reminded them why they started doing it in the first place. Yesterday, a violent crash back down to earth. "The van broke down on the way here. I thought, "I'm 36. This isn't where I saw my life going!"

The Hutchisons are here for the first show proper in support of their new supergroup, Mastersystem, which also comprises another sibling pair, Justin and James Lockey, of Editors and Minor Victories respectively. The former brother is missing in action tonight, as Scott delights in informing the crowd. "Apparently, he had better things to do. Some band called Editors. Cue all the Editors fans walking out."

Nobody does. The point of any band is that it should be greater than the sum of its parts, and that's precisely the reason that so many supergroups fail; the level of public expectation is amplified to a degree that the individuals involved can't match.

Mastersystem feel like a different proposition, though. They tap into everybody's rock and roll instincts; for Scott, he's already pulled this kind of heavy reverb trick on live versions of Frightened Rabbit's "Acts of Man", and Grant looks a different drummer entirely throughout, with animalistic turns on the likes of an extended "Teething" and a restarted "Old Team".

There's some of Scott's customary lyrical venom on the latter track - "Old Team, nobody fuck with me" - but overall, you feel as if the band themselves are here for nothing other than a lot of fun, taking advantage of an outlet that allows them to turn the dial on noise rock indulgences that they wouldn't be permitted to at their 'day jobs'. They've bent the definition of supergroup to fit their own ideas, and it really, really suits them.