Illuminated by a dull green glow from the stage, the half finished "look" of basement venue Stereo did not exactly inspire. Beer in plastic glasses and seats that were no more than coloured wooden blocks won't really drag the paying customers in.
At least there was music to distract me from the discomfort. Support act Mr Kil proved to be the highlight of the evening. Lead singer Joe Gallacher did everything that a good front man should do but the real star of the show was drummer Paul Crawford. Keeping the beat with style and flair is no easy task but he did an outstanding job. Imaginative arrangements made their set seem to fly by as one song after another imprinted itself upon my consciousness (with the anthemic "Hollow" making itself my new favourite song).
Isa & the Filthy Tongues were a band that I was actually looking forward to seeing again as it had been a while since I last saw them perform. Unfortunately, they were dogged by technical problems throughout their set and it wasn't until the last song, "Do What I Want", that the dark, twisted guitar of Martin Metcalfe made its mark. Singer Stacey Chavis tried gamely to fill in the gaps but it wasn't really happening tonight. I still wanted to propose marriage to her, however. Fringes are cute.
The sound in Stereo is normally pretty poor (or average for Glasgow, if you want to look at it in context) but the sound guy for Mr Kil (they had brought their own - a very smart move) managed to make them sound great tonight. There's a lesson in there somewhere…