| Duke Special and Stephanie Dosen, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, 9th Feb |
[Feb. 21st, 2007|01:23 pm] |
I love king Tut's, easily one of my favourite venues especially when it's packed as it was for this gig.
I first heard Duke Special when the wife and i saw him support The Divine Comedy last year and, after some urging from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ianmcdonald I bought Songs from the Deep Forest. As anyone who's been checking my Last.Fm Profile will know, it has been getting heavy rotation.
The support was the the American singer/songwriter Stephanie Dosen. Glasgow crowds can, in my experience, be quite rough on support acts, but they also know when they are hearing a good one. I picked up her CD at the gig and would be happy to recommend it.
Duke Special was fantastic, playing cuts from the album and some of the older stuff from the EP's. I took my sister with me as a belated Christmas present, she'd never heard any of his stuff before, but was completely blown away. I never expect to hear a live performance completely replicate the CD, but in this case the performance was even more passionate. My only grumble would be that this would probably be my last chance to see him in such an intimate venue, surely greater success beckons.
He told us he's coming back to Glasgow in May, can't wait, I only hope it is after the election rather than before. |
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| Sal Paradise Was Right |
[Feb. 19th, 2007|09:17 am] |
The Hold Steady, Glasgow Cathouse, 14th February
I haven't anticipated a concert more than this one for a very, very long time. If you don't know who they are yet The Hold Steady are a New York Based bunch of former Minneapolisians (is that a real word?) They have been compared to Springsteen, Husker Du and the Replacements, but they are way, way more than the sum of their influences. Lyrically they are one of the most interesting bands I've heard with vignettes about the seedier side of American life, overlaid with a sense of spirituality.
This was their first tour of the UK but hopefully not their last, I was completely blown away, Craig Finn spits his lyrics like machine gun bullets spinning the stories of Holly/Hallelujah, Charlemagne and Gideon as they drink, take drugs, screw and do their best to survive.
Musically they are really tight as well, the wonderfully flamboyant Franz Nikolay's keyboards, giving a tremendous contrast to the thundering guitars.
They deserve to mean a lot to a lot of people. Let them mean something to you. |
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ecstatic