Unsigned Bands Showcase. Three words guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of a reviewer. There will be the lack of promotion, nonsensical selection of bands and a sparse attendance to contend with. Just the thing to make for a great evening's entertainment. Nevertheless, Bluesbunny felt obliged to make the trip to The Ferry in Glasgow (it is actually a berthed boat, by the way) and show some support.
After a dryly humorous conversation with the bouncers along the lines of "Look, plenty of empty tables" followed by "No sir, all tables are fully booked and there is only standing room downstairs", Bluesbunny parts with the cash (noting the environmentally friendly recycling of the tickets) and makes for the bar. Yes, they do have Guinness but they serve it in the cheapest, flimsiest plastic glass that has yet been encountered in the Bluesbunny Glasgow adventures. However, you can, of course, buy any variety of alcopop you want in a glass bottle.
To the strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra, the first band of the night, Jiezuberband, take to the stage. That choice of intro always brings to mind seventies prog rock bands and tonight we get Jiezuberband who turn out to be… something of a prog rock band. However, it takes about five minutes to work out that they are actually a good prog rock band with bass player Andy Wood showing real class. Lead singer John Strachan does the front man thing well and even jumps off the stage and runs through the audience proffering glow sticks. No idea why but you have to admire theatrical moves like that. Whilst they are definitely of the prog rock, they also did a nice line on rocking out Meatloaf style with "Phoenix Rising". This is one band that works hard for the money.
Next up were the Yellow Bentines. The Bluesbunny knows their ska flavoured pop sound well and they did not disappoint us tonight. "Pay Cheque" has that world weary charm accentuated by Sarah's mournful trumpet. You might have guessed that we like that song a lot (it was in fact one of our top twenty tracks of 2007). It has to be said however that the "Secret of Betrayal" was a bit coffee shop but the up-tempo numbers like "Francesca" worked really well and were performed with gusto. This is indeed intelligent pop music and that is something to be treasured these days. However, it also has to be said that the Yellow Bentines did seem out of place when taken in the context of the musical styles of the other bands but, like the other bands, they were not deterred by the sparse attendance.
The last band to be reviewed tonight is the Black Triangles. For some reason, Bluesbunny had not expected a covers band but a collection of well chosen and well performed covers is what we got tonight. "Teenage Kicks" got done over Glasgow style and we were treated to an inspired rocked up version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson". It was also abundantly clear who the audience had come to see and there was a pure showbiz moment when the band invited some of the audience on to the stage for a rousing sing-along on "The Wall". Lead singer Eddie Donald sings like he means every word which is refreshing in the plastic pop world we have these days but the star of the show (and indeed of the evening) was their guitarist John Carey. Now there was style as his fluid and expressive playing brought a bit of true magic to the stage. He made it look so easy too. Crowd pleasing stuff all round but the Bluesbunny will be interested in hearing them perform their own material.
The sound was pretty decent as well tonight and The Ferry has the potential to be a good venue. However, nights like this reek of the curse of "pay to play" that still affects many Glasgow venues. It is a pity that there are not more real promoters about who might actually care about putting on a proper show for the paying punters. Until then we should be thankful that we still have bands willing to go up on stage and entertain us.