Live Review

Roddy Hart And The Lonesome Fire – The Arches, Glasgow

• 15th Nov 2013

Roddy Hart and his band played a good set in Glasgow, although not to a capacity crowd. Perhaps several other shows in the city, as well as an international football match, had an effect – but there was no questioning the commitment and performance levels of the musicians on show.

Siobhan Wilson opened the evening with a short set of solo songs. Her slow and sensual vocals sound delicate, almost ethereal at times, pitched high and soft. But she has a restrained power there that comes through occasionally to good effect. Starting on electric guitar, Wilson switched to the keyboards to sing a lovely song in French. Then on acoustic guitar she closed with All Dressed Up and Terrible Woman, the slightly faster delivery and passionate vocals working very well. It was a good set and the crowd responded well.

Roddy Hart and his band, The Lonesome Fire, played a strong set and were on stage for around ninety minutes. Pretty much all of the recent album, Roddy Hart And The Lonesome Fire, was played as well as a few older songs. With Hart switching between acoustic and electric guitar and a backing band with two guitars, two keyboards, bass and drums there was a big sound. Even the slower numbers echoed around the cavernous venue.

Hart opened with the single Cold City Avalanche and Not Nervous, both of which sounded slightly faster than on the album. His deep vocals came through strongly and the atmospheric keyboards set a lovely texture to the music. Hart switched from acoustic to electric guitar for Forget Me Not, although it turned out that it wasn’t actually plugged into his amp … The slower High Hopes followed, delivered beautifully, before the band left the stage to allow Hart to perform an old single Boxes on keyboards.

Days Are Numbered, the new album’s opening track sounded great and another older song, a cover of Tom Petty’’s Dead Of The Night, was also very well delivered. Bad Blood and Bright Line Fever both saw a touch of reverb added to the vocals, giving even more depth to the sound. The band ditched the normal practice of going off stage and coming back for an encore, instead playing the album’s closing track In My Dreams I’m Always Losing as the big finish. But Hart did return – catching many out, including the lighting tech – to play one more. The night was to end with a heartfelt cover of Lou Reed’s Satellite Of Love, a fine end to the show.

This was a good performance from Roddy Hart and The Lonesome Fire. Playing mostly new material the band sounded strong and fresh, and the inclusion of a few older Hart tracks was a nice bonus for fans too.

Venue: The Arches, Glasgow
Support Band: Siobhan Wilson