As I step into the rather splendid looking MacRobert’s centre my first thought is “Where’s the crowd?” Friday night during fresher’s week and there’s a possibility of seeing one of Scotland’s finest and most established acts and the venue’s half full? Shame on you Stirling.
First support act Jo Mango kicks off with the evening with a rather heartfelt tale of unconditional love concerning a cherished soft toy, accompanied only by her squeezebox. A rather surreal start to a gig but also a rather enjoyable one. Various family members join Miss Mango for the rest of the set adding flutes, and harps to immaculately sung tales of friendship, escaping from the rat race and various other staples of the alt country diet. Still, her humour is warm and adds something to the rather predictable stories in each song.
The same cannot be said sadly for second support Roddy Hart. Playing an acoustic guitar, with songs with titles such as “The Wilderness” and “Home”, Roddy Hart is as clichéd a singer/songwriter as they come. His voice is nice, and the songs he plays on the keyboard do touch some sense of emotion, but on the whole his songs start to become indistinguishable.
The Trashcans start they’re set off blisteringly, breaking into one of their rockier numbers, rapturously received by the crowd. The band chooses the set list wisely, opting for lots of upbeat numbers in succession at the beginning to get the crowd on their side, and their banter with the crowd is relaxed and amusing. Tales of early tours with The La’s entertain the audience, with some members even joining in. When guitarist John Douglas politely says he’s going to sing the next song, a voice from the crowd calls out “We’ll put up with it.”
There were some slight downers to the performance, the main one’s being having to sit down and the slower numbers dragging on a bit, but overall it was a delightful evening of music.
