There’s an intimate feel to the Electric Circus this evening with a semi-circle of tables and chairs set out in front of the stage.
The lights are low as Carrie Mac starts things off, playing songs from her recently released EP ‘Everywhere’ on her acoustic guitar named ‘Olga’. With sparse arrangements and sometime accompaniment from a keyboard player, her voice rises beautifully above the idle chatter coming from the bar. She apologises mid-set for “sounding like Kermit the frog”, the result of a recent period of illness, but in reality sounds very good indeed.
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Fake Major are David McGinty and Richard Ferguson, formerly of Endor. They introduce themselves as a band from Glasgow, though inform us they lived in Edinburgh some time ago, remembering a previous incarnation of tonight’s venue. They play melodic, folk tinged pop songs with a spring in their step on an acoustic and an electric guitar as well as piano. Sharing vocal duties, they create some great harmonies and look like their having a brilliant time on stage. Their aptly titled debut EP ‘Have Plenty of Fun’ is out in May.
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“I’m going to play some brand new songs but only if those guys stop talking,” says Panda Su addressing the now animated Friday night chatter coming from the bar before she starts. This is the second night of her three date Scottish tour to celebrate the release of her new single ‘Maps’. With a percussionist and various synths and electronics fleshing out her previous, more acoustic incarnation, she starts strong, her vocals nicely balanced in the mix. Highlights include ‘Maps’ and ‘Alphabet Song’, introduced with the story of how it was used in the Jennifer Lawrence film ‘House at the End of the Street’. Overall however, the talkative bar distracts, threatening to drown out several of her more subtle compositions. She ends on ‘Eric is Dead’, jokingly making sure no one called Eric is present in a room that could have given her more.
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