The latest gig on our A to Z Musical Tour was ……
It’s Monday night and the Sauchiehall Street pubs, restaurants and shops are doing their best to attract the meagre trickle of bodies moving up and down the city centre street. Around Broadcast there are a few well kent venues, The Garage and NiceNSleazy’s, but both seem tamely quiet, even shut.
However, it’s the former that’s the scene of the action tonight. While outside it’s a bright sunny evening, a pair of night vision goggles wouldn’t have gone amiss as we entered the basement room where the support act was already playing at a fair rate of knots.
Trip Westerns were their name and, according to their own description, are ‘…a 5 piece rock n roll band formed and based in Brighton with “their roots comfortably buried in the soil of mid-20th century rock and R&B, intertwined with lashings of surf and psychedelia – revelling in the twangy notes of spaghetti western soundtracks (see Ennio Morricone)…’
That sounds all very well and good, but can they string a tune together. Categorially, the answer is yes they can.
While their videos hark back to the golden age of Western films, during the set list they combined a sound that’s equally part film score, part 60’s rhythm and blues, with a modern twist of 21st century fuzz-drenched garage rock thrown into the mix. And for a few of the tracks played that was the structure of the song. Cinematic introduction, basic R’n’B chorus and verse and an instrumental blast of psych rock.
Each of the five band members played their own parts with a dexterity that hints at headline gigs can’t be too far away for the band and the audience were well rewarded, and appreciative, for coming along early to hear them play.
The main reason for being in attendance was to see Night Beats. Do we believe Wikipedia? Well according to it, Night Beats is an American psychedelic/garage rock project, formed in 2009 in Seattle, Washington as the pseudonym of Danny “Lee Blackwell” Rajan Billingsley.
While Danny Lee Blackwell was the guitar virtuoso last night, he was more than ably supported by the bass and drums section, freeing him to go into overdrive with pedals, extended guitar solos and lead vocals. And could he do magic up and down those fret bars? The guitar strings must have been burning.
Night Beats didn’t waste any time during their relatively short set—unleashing a host of songs from their latest release and back catalogue with little interaction between themselves and the respectful audience in front of them. Was it shyness? or just a work ethic to get the best music out there before their timeslot was closed down? We’ll never know.
Fortunately, we were rewarded with a couple of songs to encore us into the evening sunset though. And with a final shy wave from Mr Blackell and his band, it was goodnight to Glasgow.
Night Beats have made some great records and mixed them to almost purity for release to the public. Layers of guitars, harmonies, additional instruments with hours to pull these together. This is what we listen to on their albums.
Having been familiar with a few of their earlier releases, together with latest album Rajan, last night showed how powerful the live setting can be to deliver songs the way they were intended. Raw, electric power, combined with nimble hands and loud PAs echoing across the room.
Mr Blackwell and band, you provided a powerhouse of a show and we look forward to your next gig whenever and wherever that may be.
About the venue
Broadcast
427 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3LG
In our short lifespan, we have become one of the country’s most important venues regularly featuring artists who quickly go on to festival headliner status, such as Catfish & The Bottlemen, DMA’s, Mac de Marco, Phoebe Bridgers, we were chosen to host The Amazing Snakeheads legendary residency events and were picked by Fat White Family as the venue for the debut show by their side project Moonlandingz.
Most of our gigs and Clubs are in our basement event space with the main bar on the ground floor.
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