Douglas Dare with Glow-wirM

The latest gig on our A to Z Musical Tour was ……

It’s a Tuesday night in Glasgow. It’s October and we were heading to our first gig in local venue The Rum Shack to see Douglas Dare perform tracks from his latest album Omni.

The stage is sparse save for a keyboard, microphone and table for the obligatory laptop.

The audience is fairly sparse too, which was a pity as Douglas deserves wider appreciation if last night’s show is anything to go by.

During breaks in the set, he was keen to tell us how he was delighted to be back in Glasgow. A familiar refrain from countless musicians over the years. Yet he told stories to back up why he does enjoy performing in the city which endeared him to the audience, several of whom were ‘players’ themselves in the tales he recounted.

The new album is a departure from his previous work, more upbeat, more electronic, more pop orientated. It is an album you can happily listen to from start to finish and, after last night’s show, the concept behind some of them is a lot clearer as he explained how they developed from the original ideas he had.

Overall, it’s a change of beat that met with universal approval in The Rum Shack. The proximity of the stage to the audience let him engage at a personal level, catching their eye, praising their dancing, delighted that his music was being fully appreciated. A classic case of the entertainer feeding off the enjoyment felt by their audience.

With minimum fuss and backing tracks pre-recorded onto the laptop, Douglas has the vocal capacity to give added dimension to the recorded tracks as they came across more rounded even in such sparse surroundings.

When he played some of his earlier songs it lowered the tempo in the room, however it also emphasised how much he has progressed with this latest release.

That he is very personable is a trait that obviously won over everyone on the night and for a performer that has to make all the efforts to tour across countries worthwhile.

The personal highlight though was his techno remix of One Eye Open. The original acoustic version could best be described as cute. Spoken word taking prominence during verses.

The remix though bounces along at a pulsating rate.

Maybe the next transition from Omni will take the remix here as a template for his next project.

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Support act- Glow_wirM

Of all the acts we have witnessed on our A to Z Musical Tour, it would be fair to say none share any comparison with Glow-wirM.

Armed with a projector or two, a microphone and some technical wizardry, he performed what sometimes was an intense set of songs, though the term ‘songs’ may be open to interpretation.

It was a full on visual and aural experience. Difficult to ignore. Difficult at times to understand. And yet. There was something about the thirty minutes that dragged you into his world. There was so much going on. Drum beats. Distorted vocals. Synthesisers set to level 11.

It might not win any Mercury Prize, but it might just give some of the Turner Prize entries a run for their money.

Filed away under Interesting.