Last Night From Glasgow aren’t daft. When artists as big as T-Swift are being shafted sideways by record deals, their brand of doing things differently is a breath of reassuring fresh air to indie newcomers shaking in their unsigned boots. It’s this level of sinfully charming support which they brought to Newcastle for their debut showcase – a night to show off label signees LOUDMAMMOTH’s second single, ‘Let Go.’
‘Our Friends in The North (East)’ fell nothing short of a night of warm and unpredictable magic. The genuinely just-a-bit-weird opener, Stephen Solo, demonstrated why no one should leave their drunk uncle alone with the iPad at Christmas – you’ll end up with an awkward electro set of tunes made ‘mid, mid-life crisis’ behind his couch. We know, Steve. We know. Why not try out a motorcycle? Or a property share in Majorca?
L-Space followed up. Crowned “ones to watch in 2019” by BBC Glasgow, their big back catalogue of colourful antics went down nicely. Auburn pocket-rocket, Lily of L-Space (see what she did there?) packed a lot of songs with long names that I couldn’t quite catch into a painfully under-rated set in my opinion. The inevitable show-stealer, ‘Music for Megastructures’ was flowy, dreamy, and just some real nice stuff. If you’ve been shotting double whiskeys before your set – like Lily – even more so.
Then our headliners, LOUDMAMMOTH took to the stage. The local-kids-done-good have been fighting against a sound that could easily slip into ‘this is just another guitar song’ territory since 2018. But, they’ve been grafting away, and their opening singles sat sweetly amongst an easy listening setlist of 30 or so minutes. It was shy, sunny and synthy, achieving a humble brag in the direction of bigger things to come. Jangly scorcher ‘Enough’, and follow up ‘Let Go’ – an all sunglasses and smiles tune that tastes like an orange Calippo – worked well with flirty to the ear vocals from Rachel Cowell. It was sugary stuff all round really. Definitely would see again.
So, asides from taking away a room-temperature G&T and a new found knowledge of ‘retrofuturistic’ music, the night was a success. Like I said – Last Night From Glasgow aren’t daft.
