This was the second Last Night from Glasgow afternoon event at this venue, and the low ticket price included a free beer, which BM is sure does not circumvent any local licensing laws whatsoever – we are all responsible adults here!
The event was billed as five acts but BM pretty much missed Jared Celosse and Zoey Bestel (although catching her last song, a cover of ‘Teardrop’, which sounded very nice indeed).
There was a wee bit of an issue with sound bleed from the main bar (loud women) which makes BM wonder if The Doublet is a better venue for these afternoons, however you can’t get your lunch/early tea up there so there are pluses and minuses….
Next up was Johnathan Liley (of the Gracious Losers) who played an acoustic guitar and previewed a song from the band’s next album, plus material from the previous one, along with ‘Out of Reach'(?) a great song full of boxing metaphors which BM is straining to reference, original or cover, not sure… but as a last minute sub for Lola in Slacks (who called off for urgent reasons) this was quite a treat.
After that came Stephen Solo, who plugged his guitar and phone into the soundsystem and gave us five tracks of sublime DIY pop. Culled from his three albums, and in between quips about wet microphones and herpes, he gave us some catchy poppy tracks like ‘Suddenly Heaven’, ‘Hold Music’ and one of his initial SS songs ‘Crying Because’, about his (at the time) very small son ….
Leo Bargery, without the full Mt Doubt collective, appeared last today (as the murky afternoon turned into dark night) with just a guitar borrowed from Johnathan. His incredible voice wrapped itself around some songs ‘in development’ for Mt Doubt, as well as covers from Sparklehorse and The Silver Jews, So this was no ‘greatest hits’ set but more of an insight into how songs develop as work in progress, and for that it was wonderful…
Another great afternoon from LNFG, and a chance for artists and audience to mingle, drink together etc and stroke Ian Smith’s delightful dug, a spaniel called Bennett…