This gig saw support slots from two people involved with the Afterlands project…
firstly Rick Redbeard gave us a set of guitar and voice, very sparse, including a couple a new songs and a Phantom Band track (‘The Howling’). Referencing the fact that he was not Taylor Swift and that his third child was only two weeks old, he did at times maybe seem a bit distracted, but it would be a shame if family life overwhelms his desire to make music and in particular to sing, his resonant baritone still so distinctive after all those years.
Jill Lorean, playing guitar, fiddle and at times using sound loops, started with one of her best songs (‘Dog-Eared Rose’) and took us through mainly tracks from her ‘This Rock’ album plus a fairly obscure Americana cover. She ended with the album opener ‘The Breaking Down’, still sounding fresh and unique. Oh, and she also had a dig at music reviewers, playing a track from (BM thinks) one of her previous incarnations (Sparrow and the Workshop), from an album which got “two stars from Uncut” – very cruel those critics can be, and wrong as well!
This was Afterlands’ first gig in Glasgow, in fact probably first gig proper full stop. Perhaps slightly feeling their way tonight, the combo played tracks from the recently released ‘We Are The Animals In The Night’ album, the highlight of which for BM was definitely ‘Geese Flying in Broken Patterns’, which captures a certain gothic naturalism.
Core members Rick and David were joined tonight by Joe on drums, along with a bass player and a guest spot from Jill Lorean for the last brace of numbers including ‘Whale Song’ and ‘Nautilus’. The overall vibe here was understated, slightly unsettling but ultimately uplifting sounds and words, the realisation of a lockdown-era collaboration which has paid off richly.
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