This was a great end to an eventful day. BM had been switching between Lovemusicglasgow and Mono all day but there came time to go south, where the fairly newly established Great Reward record shop on Victoria Road had collaborated with the mighty Glad Cafe to put on a mixed bill of 3 bands who had RSD (or had hoped to anyway!) releases playing live.
First up were Home Economics, fronted by Double A-Side label honcho Angus, and very good they were too. Pulling guitar lick shapes and clearly enjoying themselves, they blasted through a good brace of around eight tracks. Highlights were ‘Wasted Lives’ about the low wage economy, and ‘Idiots’ about, well, idiots. There were some quirky riffs and lyrical ideas in there. BM can’t seem to find any music online apart from ‘Idiots’, which kicks up a fair fuss. Watch out for these guys, they espouse the true spirit of indiepop in this terrible year of 2019.
Pocket Knife are a different proposition – a very quirky two piece (her on vocals/noise and him on bass) – there is some bizarre subject matter here including what may be the first songs that BM has heard about being attracted to fish magazines, so if there is an outbreak of fish porn crimes on the Southside of Glasgow, well we know who to blame… Another song about Cookies confirms that this lot are just, well, MAD, but fair play to them, they can string a hook together and it sounds great.
Given the lateness of the hour it was seriously impressive to hear the audience (or not hear them in fact) during headliner Annie Booth’s set. For her half hour onstage she held us rapt, just her and the guitar, though such numbers as ‘Chasm’ and the sublime ‘Double Eight”‘. Her voice compares to Joni Mitchel and possibly Tracey Chapman, high praise indeed for this self-deprecating girl from Edinburgh. She ended with a wee tickle on the Glad’s old joanna (luckily it was tuned last week) and this was a perfect end to a great show.
The Glad, Olive Grove, Scottish Fiction and of course Some Great Reward (both Olly and Fay from the store were in the audience tonight) should be commended for a great show, a perfect end to RSD2019.