Lumber Party

Stereo, Glasgow - 14th Feb 2014

..with Kid Canaveral, Randolph's Leap, Malcolm Middleton

In order of appearance:
Malcolm Middleton

Probably due to his role in Arab Strap, Malcolm Middleton has often been tarred with the ‘Depressed and Dark’ brush, despite the fact that Arab Strap regularly generated a smile or even a guffaw from anyone who actually listened to their lyrics.

He opened his set with "As it's Valentine's Day, I tried to put together a set of my songs that were full of love - but then I found there weren't any". This was more or less the theme of his set - top-notch guitar playing, excellent "wry smile" introspective lyrics, dark songs, deep from the heart.

Set list was (roughly): Cold Winter; By Proxy; Gone, Gone, Gone; Little Hurricane; Fuck It, I Love You; A Brighter Beat; Blue Plastic Bags

Randolph's Leap

[Photo credit to http://matthewmcandrew.com/]

Next came Randolph's Leap, and this time it was a full band outing with brass and strings. Adam Ross (vocals and guitar), Gareth Robert Perrie (keyboards), Iain Taylor (drums), Vicki Cole (bass), Andrew MacLellan (guitar, cello),Fraser Gibson (trombone), Ali Hendry (trumpet) and Heather Thikey (violin)  

They cranked up the volume and really got the audience going with a fine set which included so many examples of Adam Ross's quirky and excellent lyrics that I am still smiling as I add the set list. If you're reading this Adam - yes, we're all OK!

The sound was excellent, and the brass and string section did a fine job, adding real depth to almost all the tracks, and especially on Real Anymore.
Set-list - Mutiny; News; Hermit; Goodbye; Nature; Real Anymore; Black and Blue; Counting Sheep; I Can't Dance To This Music Anymore; Light of The Moon.

Kid Canaveral
Kid Canaveral were next, David MacGregor (guitar, vocals), Kate Lazda (guitar, vocals), Rose McConnachie (bass, vocals) and Scott McMaster (drums, vocals)

They kicked off with a seasonal "Low Winter Sun", followed by the inappropriate (for Valentine's Day) "Breaking Up Is The New Getting Married" and "Without a Backing Track". 

However things started to go awry when they launched into a rockin' version of "You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night" - David broke a string on the Fender Super-Sonic and
managed to change to his backup Telecaster without missing a vocal.

 

[Photo credit to http://matthewmcandrew.com/]

Not just one string break, but two. Later on in the evening, another string break, this time on the Telecaster! No back-up guitar, so it was up to Andrew MacLellan from Randolph's
Leap to offer his guitar as a loaner. He made the most of the guitar handover.. ..milking the moment:

 

[Photo credit to http://matthewmcandrew.com/]

Armed with loaner guitar, there were no more mishaps and they finished a great set with "And Another Thing", "Good Morning" and "Compromise". Excellent gig!

Oh, and every ticket holder got a Limited Edition bright pink vinyl copy of
the new single "Who Would Want To Be Loved". The B-side of which is a cover of
Randolph's Leap's "I Can't Dance To This Music Anymore" - collectors' item I'm guessing (hoping)

Set-list was: