Plug it in and see what happens said the panda with plan. Spark up your incense stick while you are at it for the past is the new future. The world keeps going round and around just like one of those long playing things that spin on the turntable of love which is appropriate for, tonight, it is album launch time for Big Hogg with Sloth Metropolis and James Rodgers ready to provide solid support.
Talking of incense, James Rodgers and his guitar had that sixties singer songwriter vibe sorted right out and his long haired songs easily evoked the mood of the time when flower was power. However, introducing one of his songs with the phrase “I was living with two drug dealers in Glasgow” indicated that he had not yet sold his lyrical soul to the past.
Right clicking on the oblique option were Sloth Metropolis and, courageously deciding that performing a concept album was the way to go, their guitar free, although you would never guess that if your eyes were shut, sound marched onwards with scant regard for convention as the tale of Angus and his island of two parts unfolded before your confused but intrigued ears. Clearly determined to be adventurous, Sloth Metropolis followed their own path. If only other Glasgow bands would do likewise…
Main attraction time. Big Hogg had a job to do and they did it admirably. Whilst often rambling, but never rambunctious, they fluently weaved a web made of their own particular brand of musical madness whilst mixing together influences as polite as British folk whimsy and as air guitar friendly as Allman Brothers style southern boogie. Now that’s the kind of class act that you can’t carry that off without both commitment and ability in your sports bag so let’s just finish by saying that Big Hogg were more than happy to show the audience that they were ready, willing and able to work up a sweat.
The panda with the plan says that buying Big Hogg’s self-titled album (with exquisite cover art by Julia Jeffrey) is the smart thing to do. With that kind of wisdom, and cute furriness, at their disposal, it makes you wonder how pandas got to be an endangered species.