Live Review

Dead Sea Souls – King Tut’s, Glasgow

• 23rd Jul 2011

Another four Scottish bands were given the chance to shine as part of King Tut’s Summer Nights series last night, and it turned into a lively and entertaining evening of music.

Queen Jane, a four piece indie band from Cumbernauld played a set of pop infused tunes that featured good melodies and some nice hooks. Confetti, the title track from the band’s EP was perhaps the best song, typifying their two guitar approach. It was a pleasant start to the night from a decent young band.

John Wean (the name will make sense to Scots) were next, with a faster paced indie sound. They have a solid rhythm section and showed some nice guitar work, although the machine gun delivery lyrics were indistinct at times. Fan favourite Desperate Dan was a nice tale and the one song where the bass player took on the lead vocal was a well delivered song with a real rock n roll feel.

The Black Rats from Strathaven were the pick of the support acts, delivering a fine set of harder rock songs. With the four members of the band dressed all in black they looked like a rock band as well as sounding terrific. Their high energy set was based around a fine vocal performance, which featured power on Loaded Gun and a more emotional delivery on the slower We All Get Hurt Sometimes. Add in pounding drums, strong bass and a howling guitar, and you get a damned good rock band.

Headliners Dead Sea Souls had brought a decent fan club along with them from Bathgate and the atmosphere was electric from the off. Their 30 minute set was filled with a melodic and funky brand of indie from a band who have built up a fine reputation as a live act. And with a debut album expected this year they have much to look forward to.

Gary Burns on bass and lead vocals is the focus of the band’s music and he knows exactly how to play to the crowd. His vocals were right on the money too, and he even managed to fit in a short bass solo. He was well backed by David Clark on drums while guitarists Colin Sneddon and James Sweeney combined well to give the sound a fast pace and a strong melody.

With songs like Scenester and Trendsetter the band show they have a keen song writing edge and many of their songs feature wry observations on life. The one track from the new album they played, Punk B Side (I think), sounded a little harder than the older material, but it still had a nice hook to it.

Before too long the band were told they had time for one last song, and something of a band conference took place before they finally opted for My Problem. This was sung with typical verve and I’m sure they managed to fit in parts of a couple of others songs to extend their stage time. The enthusiastic audience of course wanted more, but time had run out.

In this short set Dead Sea Souls showed that their music is dynamic and full of life and their stage performance is of a high quality. There will be plenty more occasions to see a band that clearly has a bright future.