First on are The Levings. From Bluesbunny's experience of bands from Livingston, something loud and brash was expected but this 5 piece band were altogether more laidback with Colin Baxter's confident vocals shining through on songs like "Daylight Breaking" and the sublime "Quiet Town". There are some nice big echoey guitars as well to give things that old style rock ballad feel to the slower numbers. Pretty civilised, really. You want some sort of comparison to classify their sound? Perhaps a reasonable comparison would be that they sound like Wet Wet Wet should sound nowadays if they hadn't got damp.
Talking of damp, the temperature and the humidity in the Barrowlands 2 fairly ramps up once people start jumping about. If you want to get people jumping about then you might well need a band whose music that comes across like a punk band with an Oasis fixation. Such a band would be The Highways. They've got songs that you can sing along to and they have a solidly aggressive sound powered by a mean pair of electric guitars. Front man Rab Davies leans into his vocal duties like a sailing ship into the wind and rapidly gets up to pace and soon "The Burn" cuts a hole in the sweaty fog that is forming in front of the stage. Wearing your influences on your sleeve is no bad thing in this case and this band are gone from the stage way too soon.
Then Echo-Bass explode on to the stage. Clearly popular with the crowd, they let rip with an overheated mix of rap and heavyweight guitar riffs that must surely have been forged in the furnaces of hell itself. They waste little time in whipping the crowd to fever pitch and some serious synchronised sweating takes place. Dreadlocked singer Pol Romano prowls the stage like the proverbial angry young man and spits out fury as the guitars drive home the message. This is strutting urban music at its best with "Emotions are Low" standing out as the song most likely to cause a riot. In fact, on the basis of tonight's evidence, they are a band that are practically guaranteed to cause a riot anywhere with their powerhouse performance. Mightily impressive.
Japan Four are next and they have come prepared to make their presence felt. Taking to the stage with their name written upon a Scotland flag certainly hinted at that. The crowd start chanting - yet more evidence - and the walls of the Barrowlands 2 are actually sweating in anticipation now. With just cause too, as Japan Four launch into an anarchic set. It is a deodorant testing time as the crowd go mental. You know you are in the right place when you look around and notice that there is not a goatee beard in sight anywhere. There is lager everywhere as the post modern equivalent of pogoing take place. That whole band/audience divide thing just does not happen as people run on and off the stage during the songs. To their credit, the band doesn't seem remotely upset about that and keep the pace up right to the end of their set. To put it simply, Japan Four are a band that does not take prisoners.
Last on tonight are the Sweet Leaves. This five piece band seems older and altogether less raucous than the previous two bands with a nice line in seventies style classic rock. Even though the approaching curfew means a short set, they still take time to pause for a photo opportunity with their fans. It is a polished performance we get with "Which Ever Way the Wind Blows" nicely highlighting Jason Wylie's effective vocal stylings. Thumbs up to the tasty guitar work as well.
And then it's over. It is still early so Bluesbunny does the decent thing and heads off in search of a decent pint of Guinness and some chicken pakora. The verdict? Japan Four and Echo-Bass tie for first position. Two lethal live acts that made this Bluesbunny wish he was young again.