Once more into the underworld, dear friends. Bluesbunny found himself in the basement splendour of Nice and Sleazy on Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street. The dull red lighting, the unmistakeable smell of air conditioning units in need of a service and, of course, the rather poor Guinness. However, it is a decent live venue so, after deftly switching to bottled beer, Bluesbunny tracked down a suitable vantage point. Not that it was a difficult task as the cold wind seemed to have kept the punters at bay leaving the venue barely half full.
Louise Against the Elements take to the stage. At Bluesbunny Towers, we are big fans of Louise Against the Elements. Learned all the words to their songs and everything. Just as well, for the sound tonight is not good. Louise's voice has that quality that stirs souls but tonight she sounds like she is phoning in from the other side of the world. Nevertheless, those songs shine through. "Baby Blue" is enlivened by some manic guitar from Stephen Merrick. "Sinful" is a future classic but tonight - thanks to the miserable sound - gets only polite applause. "Rollin' in Honey" shows the poise and confidence that only well rehearsed bands have. Interestingly, the last two songs in the set showed a change in musical direction moving away from their usual polished pop meets funk to a more indie rock sound. The feral charms of Louise as she stalked the stage are still there but musically they became a lot harder. This band is still a tip for the top.
Next on is the Sonsie Collective. Bluesbunny had heard good things about Fay Harmey's vocal talents and was therefore keen to see what she could do. What we had not heard about was the positively wicked combination on guitars of Conor Mason (hiding behind a laptop) and the mad wummin Janis Hunter (playing like a woman possessed). Now this is the 'A' team. It did not take too many songs - despite the efforts of the sound engineer to randomly lose either or both guitars in the mix - to work out that this is a class rhythm section. From listening to "Streets", this band obviously owe a debt to seventies funk and they do that dancefloor thing well. Funk never died, by the way, as a visit to the North-eastern side of the USA will confirm. "Guilty Pleasures" stood out from their other songs being more of a mix of modern indie sounds and dancefloor beats. Friday night, you've just been paid and you just gotta dance until dawn. Well, The Sonsie Collective could well be your soundtrack.
Both bands did well tonight in unfortunate circumstances. Nice and Sleazy is normally fine for sound too so tonight was a real disappointment. I suppose that it is the result of supply exceeding demand as colleges flood the market with supposed sound engineers. Economics take a hand and venues just book the cheapest engineer they can find. Bottom of the class but £20 cheaper than somebody who knows what they are doing. Sold! The only sound engineers who make decent money are the ones who make a band sound good. If a band sounds good, it starts to build a fan base as people can properly appreciate the effort that goes into making music. Hopefully a record deal comes along and - hey presto! - the sound engineer gets on the payroll. Money in the bank finally.