Woe is me for it is raining in my heart. Well, perhaps not actually raining in my heart but it is most certainly raining on my head and, with a lack of umbrella, the only way to avoid dilution of my enormous intellect was to seek shelter in Pivo Pivo. As if to prove that misery, and dampness, loves company, Bec Sandridge, Lyndsey Hurren, Altered Sky and Johnny Hagan were there too. Time therefore for the pen and somewhat moist paper.
John Hagan sounded like a man on a mission. He had that confidence that comes with extensive practice and, even though he never strayed from the mainstream, that fact was perhaps of little importance when you consider that his particular stream overflowed with talent.
Lyndsay Hurren similarly seemed larger than the venue with her voice being barely stretched by the combination of downbeat originals and conservative covers that made up her set. You get the feeling that she could easily go large on a torch song or even an outright rocker but tonight a more melancholic approach was her choice.
Quadrupling the onstage numbers were Glasgow rockers Altered Sky for a stripped back version of their normal, or so a man would reasonably imagine, roof raising sound. Considering they were down on volume, it was notable that they still sounded like their destiny would follow the yellow brick road to the festival stage with Ana Nowosielska’s voice, in particular, resonating long after the last chord.
The thing about singer songwriters – or the thing that you notice when you’ve seen after a few hundred of them – is the massive gap between the best and the rest. Bec Sandridge is certainly better than the rest by a substantial margin with both musical dexterity and vocal intensity allowing her to stamp her unique mark upon a sonic canvas painted in her own colours. Let’s put it another way. After tonight, if I were speaking like Yoda, a believer she would of me made.
It’s still raining however. I wonder why no one in Glasgow makes umbrellas for there would clearly be profit in such a venture.