Let’s be us again’. So sings Amy Boone, and indeed we are. We are together again with one of Portland’s finest, The Delines, and we are together again with Glasgow on a familiarly damp and stormy October night.
Eleven months ago, Fickle Friends were supposed to play King Tut’s. The first support was already on stage when the storm outside caused a major plumbing issue for the venue and the whole thing was called off.
The Afghan Whigs were last sighted in Glasgow at St Lukes – but would that have made for a better venue for this show?
Exactly what John McKeown has been doing since The Yummy Fur went on hiatus in 1999 is unclear, but he’s certainly not been idle.
A sold out show on a Tuesday at The Glad, and with Scotland playing just along the road at Hampden – although it’s doubtful if there was much of a cross-over potential between the two audiences as most of the voices heard at the Glad were non-Scottish. It does look as if Carla Dal Forno has universal appeal, but first let’s cover the support act.
Last year, Dexys Midnight Runners‘ frontman Kevin Rowland published his autobiography titled Bless Me Father: A Life Story. Well worth reading, it is a frank and brutally honest autobiography. On this, Dexys’ seventh album, readers and and many listeners will recognise some of the people in these songs: his dad, his brother, his first love, more recent romances. As Rowland himself explains, these are all love songs, of a sort.
“I was asked, saves me from buying a ticket” says Xan Tyler before singing her heart out – playing acoustic guitar on a few numbers but also letting electric/slide guitarist John Rooney carry some of the instrumental load on a spellbinding opening set. The two guitars’ intertwining finger-picking was so great, but John did blow up an amp during the soundcheck – rock ‘n’ roll obviously lives in The Glad Cafe. Her clear voice and “estuary” (sorry if it’s not called that these days!) tones played large on the historical injustices of the female lot, but also ran parallels with St Etienne vocalist Sarah Cracknell (“We used to get a lot of that from people back in the day”, she told BM later).
On a quiet weekday it was a real joy witness a true musical great debuting new material, playing some oldies and despite his grumpy reputation (mainly from his scabrous accounts the Britpop years) looking like he was really enjoying his gig – we are of course talking here about Luke Haines, a serial collaborator (The Auteurs, Black Box Recorder, Baadher Meinhoff, Haines/Buck and currently the Haines Power Trio) and prolific recording artist (so many albums…).
Julia Jacklin’s fourth album finds her transformed into a sincere, lovelorn sentimentalist whose navel-gazing will eventually deliver her freedom.There are still hints of a cynical, irony-drenched slacker, delivering tossed-off lyrics about watering plants with nonchalant disdain, but on ‘The Gem’ Jacklin is fully committed to her confessionals.
Although this was officially an album launch night for a new Adam Stafford release, what we actually got tonight is three of Scotland, or anywhere’s, best singer/songwriters each doing a compelling solo set.
Originally scheduled for SWG3 this show was upgraded due to exceptional demand, possibly due to the words “farewell tour of the UK/Ireland” being put beside some of the adverts.
Well, that was a fever dream.
A band seemingly made popular by Fortnite streamers, Good Kid are one of those mysterious entities that are so deeply beloved by their followers but almost invisible to the rest of the (offline) world.
Well, that was a fever dream.
A band seemingly made popular by Fortnite streamers, Good Kid are one of those mysterious entities that are so deeply beloved by their followers but almost invisible to the rest of the (offline) world.
Opener Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band present as a more or less straight-up country rock band, but a subversive edge is apparent early on. ‘The Simple Joy’ is one of their most laidback tunes, with Davis bending his Kentucky drawl around every syllable, but multi-instrumentalist Dee Dee Davis (no relation) is going absolutely batshit in the back. Wildly incongruous head-banging, unexpected bongo breakdowns, synths that hit like electric shocks. It’s like he’s playing in a different band, and that energy doesn’t flag for a moment, but strangely it does start to cohere… Ryan gets in on the act with an absurdly elongated guitar thrash during the intro to standout ‘Monte Carlo / No Limits,’ bringing a crescendo to the beginning of the song just for kicks.
Metric returned to Glasgow this month for their first show here since their smaller 2022 performance, and despite an incredible performance from the band, they were unfortunately met by a fairly subdued crowd.
Another night at PITCH, another set of Primal Scream fans to elbow out the way at the bar (see Thursday review).
It’s said that we’re at our most creative when we’re a bit tired, but relaxed. Bill Wells, however, takes this to extremes without even trying.
There’s an organisational elegance to Big City Festival: ten acts, two tents (five acts a piece) with each band starting on one stage as another finishes a short walk across the field. This means it’s perfectly possible to see every act if 7+ hours of continuous live music is your bag. But the schedule also doesn’t create natural pauses for food, drinks, socialising etc. Which means you need to sacrifice seeing someone or loiter around the peripheries and do those things while half paying attention. And with the quality on display today, any sacrifice feels like you’re missing out. But if you’ve manufactured a lineup so good there’s inevitable FOMO, you’re probably onto a winner.
Scissor Sisters returned to Glasgow with a celebration that felt less like a concert and more like a joyous reunion. Playing the final night of the tour in Queen’s Park, the band delivered a show packed with nostalgia, surprises and enough energy to remind everyone exactly why they’ve been missed.
This weekend (Saturday 5th September) the fifth incarnation of No A Mean City: Sounds of Solidarity hits the Glasgow Art School.