There are times when even those bypassed by cynicism are drawn to think that life is no more than a left hand turn into a blind alley. Then there are those times when the sun shines on Sauchiehall Street and all seems well with the world. Life’s rich pageantry is so often a mystery but her eyes, as is the colour of the Mediterranean in the warm sunlight, are azure and everything is once again as it should be and a soundtrack to these poetic thoughts - never more necessary than now - would, hopefully, be provided by Verse Metrics, Black International, Gaze is Ghost and Genesee.
With the courage to walk the a cappella path when the mood overcame her, Genesee took all that she had learned in both Kenya and Scotland and used it to make her songs both inspirational and, without ever preaching, devotional with her voice having the power to salve many more troubled souls than were present tonight.
If moody melancholy were to be your thing then Gaze is Ghost would surely be your soundtrack. Despite the downbeat songs, the voice of Laura McGarrigle was always front and centre as if destined to be the light the shone through the fog and led you to safety.
As something of a counterpoint, Black International selected the two men and maximum volume option to drive their raucous songs onwards and outwards into the audience and blast all thoughts of subtlety from their minds.
Verse Metrics had been woken from their slumbers just for this gig, or so it would seem, and took the opportunity to mix old songs and new songs into a melting pot of music perilously placed on the cusp of math rock and dear old indie. Not quite edgy enough to be classed as dangerous yet too oblique to be actually commercial, Verse Metrics were the kind of band that would bring joy to beard scratchers everywhere.
Not only does she have eyes of azure but she also has really nice handwriting. When the sun shines on Glasgow, it really shines.