The Pictish Trail

THE PICTISH TRAIL - MUSEUM LATES, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND, EDINBURGH Feb 28th 2014

This was my first visit to the Chamber Street Museum in many a year, and what a venue for a music event! Had a bite to eat and a glass of wine in the basement brasserie and then it was up into the Grand Gallery to see the stage, wander around, get a beer.

Who happened to be on the stage but Mr Johnny Lynch (aka The Pictish Trail), in his Lost Map Records bobble hat, keeping track of his Twitter feed no doubt, and sharing a joke with the drummer Peter Colquhoun from his backing band for the night, Massacre Cave. However they strolled off for a beer having just completed their sound-check.

Radio 1's Vic Galloway was the compère for the evening, and the schedule for the evening was published as:
19:00 Fresh Air DJs
19:30 Ice, Ice Baby
20:00 Ice, Ice Baby
20:30 Marnie Live DJ set
21:20 Ice, Ice Baby
21:30 The Pictish Trail Live

As it was just after 19:00 we were treated to a nice ambient sounding set from one of the Edinburgh’s student radio station DJs, but it wasn't riveting stuff so we went off to explore the Museum and the Mammoth exhibition. This was the view from the 3rd foor balcony. 

As I mentioned - what a venue! 

Anyway the exhibition was fun, face-painting, cardboard mammoth hats, and lots to see. The two temporary bars were doing a roaring trade, and despite the prices we had a couple or three beers. The crowd on the Grand Gallery (stage) level began to build and suddenly we found out what "Ice, Ice Baby" was as listed on the program - a bunch of cavemen, cavewomen and some 50s style lassies began a flash-mob dance to Vanilla Ice's Ice, Ice Baby. All quite entertaining.

Next was another DJ set, this time from Helen Marnie ex Ladytron, and this was a much better set, well much more to my taste. She really got the crowd dancing.

After another obligatory Flash-mob outing, we prepared for the Pictish Trail. Vic Galloway did the big build up and on came Johnny Lynch with his backing band Massacre Cave (a heavy metal outfit from Eigg). 

The view from the stage level

 Views from the 1st floor balcony

They played (in no particular order): Of Course You Exist, Winter Home Disco, The Wolf Is On The Hill, The Handstand Crowd, Michael Rocket, Long In The Tooth, Wait Until and Words Fail Me Now.

Despite their heavy metal leanings, Massacre Cave did Johnny proud. Really excellent band - such a tight outfit - they added depth (and volume) to every song. 

Really enjoyable gig, marred only by some slightly echoey sound, which I guess was down to the marble lined Grand Gallery of Chamber Street Museum. Still it was a visually amazing and well run event.