Pop Music Reviews : Glasgow’s Gun Aims at Melodic Metal Market

Part U2, part INXS, the Glasgow quintet Gun is a clean pop package with all the right elements for the melodic metal market: a jaunty lead singer with a powerful voice, a rambunctious rhythm section and a catalogue of crafty, melodramatic tunes.

During an animated, hourlong performance at the Whisky on Tuesday, guitarists Baby Stanford and Giuliano Gizzi unleashed a calculated barrage of commercially acceptable distortion, hammering on their Les Pauls so hard that they each busted a string or two on practically every song. Vocalist Mark Rankin stalked the stage like a lad possessed, dancing and singing with the presence of a seasoned pro.

While no one could fault the group for a lack of enthusiasm, pop fans in search of original ideas ought to look elsewhere. True to the genre, Gun’s lyrics are overwrought with cliches and inane metaphors. Still, Rankin delivered each word with conviction, infusing the material with a Bono-like passion that seemed to whip the Whisky patrons into a frenzy.

Songs like the anthemic “Better Days” and the quasi-funk “Something to Believe In” were well received, but it was the band’s rowdy versions of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” that really brought down the house.