MASTERS OF REALITY (live) BRING THEIR FUZZED-UP COLOURS TO GLASGOW!

CHAY WOODMAN (AUTHOR)

MASTERS OF REALITY – The Classic Grand, Tuesday 8th April 2025.

Masters Of Reality are, unquestionably, a little bit more than just an overlooked ‘cult’ band. Frontman Chris Goss, a Rock magus with an extracurricular back catalogue steeped in knowing guest spots and on-point production duties, biblically including two of the Stoner Rock tablets individually handrolled by God (Sky Valley by Kyuss and Rated R from Queens Of The Stone Age), also isn’t your average musician.

When spandex-Rawk ruled the Earth in the late 80s, music that stunk so bad you could smell the powder masking the predictability, MOR were already weaving Alternative Rock spells with their self-titled behemoth of a debut album, also regarded as ‘The Blue Garden’. But it was too pure for the cool kids to swim in. Too colourful for anyone trapped in peer-pressure denim. Pink Floyd & King Crimson hadn’t been namechecked for a long time. However, Nirvana knew. As did Alice In Chains, Screaming Trees and quite importantly, Josh Homme.

Walking towards his stage seat to whatever a starting-standing ovation might be before any instrument is struck, Goss sits, gets armed, and takes a second, because let’s face it, this is a Glasgow crowd, before bellowing “Hello you Motherfuckers!”  Everyone’s in the right place.

Kicking off with Mr Tap’n’Go from their just released album The Archer, we’re told it’s going to be a variety pack of a setlist. With Doraldina’s Prophecies,  from their 1989 debut, we’re led down the hallway towards a whisky-steeped barroom piano teller of tall tales, followed by some hefty bones thrown from 2001’s Deep In The Hole – High Noon Amsterdam (sadly missing the late Lanegan vocal) plus Deep In The Hole itself and some absolutely filthy riffs via Third Man On The Moon. Scotland does appreciate its riffs when they’re dirtier than the gutter outside the venue.

We take a slow beat onboard a meandering river for Rabbit One, from Sunrise On The Sufferbus. The original had Ginger Baker on the sticks, so the swing is beyond low, and the groove is deeply, ridiculously infectious. Shoulders sway within the breeze of motion. Goss works his magic. Then we’re quickly thrown back into wah-wah-‘ing feedback with Theme for the Scientist of the Invisible & The Blue Garden. If the latter isn’t from a similar headspace to where Jimmy Page took his favourite occult ideas, all church organ Psychedelia, and guitars galore, then it’s probably better that The Beatles split, or this is what they might’ve produced because The Blue Garden might be one of the most misunderstood albums of all time. Grudgingly difficult to categorise yet too bold for a single Rock section.

For closer Ants In The Kitchen from Sunrise…it’s back to the Baker shuffle and George Harrison-esque snakelike guitar moves. If only Kyuss would reform with the single purpose to cover it.

We depart, merch in hand, not knowing when they’ll be back. But for now, on a balmy Tuesday night in Glasgow, soaked in fuzz, we know we’ve just witnessed a band that, sure, they might’ve midwifed a little genre called Stoner Rock, but also, that Masters Of Reality aren’t shy with hidden surfaces to scratch because they’ve been blowing minds in plain sight the whole time.