Live Review

Hurray For The Riff Raff – Pivo Pivo, Glasgow

• 31st Aug 2012

Hurray For The Riff Raff started their UK tour in Glasgow last night, and the New Orleans based band capped a fine night of music with a superb performance. They were ably backed by three local support acts, giving a great bill for the large crowd to enjoy.

Young singer songwriter Matt Scott from Kilmarnock kicked things off with his bluesy acoustic rock. Scott has a deep and powerful voice with a catch to it that is perfectly suited to his songs. He played mostly his own compositions and I was thinking Frankie Miller long before he played a cover. The closing Roadhouse Blues was very good too.

Little Fire, the very talented singer songwriter Jamie McGeechan from Ayr, also played a great acoustic set. His passionate and expressive voice is husky and powerful and McGeechan is a good guitarist too. With a range of tempos to his songs, he played an entertaining set that included the effervescent High Hopes and the softer Tell Me What, both of which were very well received.

The Dirt, a male-female duo from Glasgow, are a band I want to see again. Their acoustic folk/ country songs have a wonderful line in black humour running through them and they sounded great too. The contrast between Graeme’s deep voice and Jen’s sweeter tones worked well, especially in the call and response Love Is Like A Cold War. And their murder ballad about serial killer Peter Manuel was dark and engaging.

Hurray To The Riff Raff escaped New Orleans just before the bad weather hit and are touring the UK to promote their excellent new album Look Out Mama. But there were no opening night nerves and he band got into their stride superbly, on top form from the start. Alynda Lee Segarra’s voice was quite beautiful throughout, her passionate laments and highly emotional delivery coming easily, it seemed.

And Segarra was ably backed by three fine Louisiana musicians who moved between an array of instruments, offering backing you would usually expect from a much larger band. Yosi Perlstein switched between violin and drums, Sam Doores covered drums and acoustic guitar plus vocal duties and harmonica, while Dan Cutler was on upright bass.

Opening with the first two tracks from the new album, Little Black Star and Look Out Mama, the tone was set for a beautiful night of country blues and Americana that was loose and passionate, yet also superbly crafted to showcase Segarra’s beguiling vocals. After a couple of older tracks, Ode To John And Yoko was performed quite superbly. The song sits at the centre of the album and the fine vocals were contrasted with a haunting violin to give a lovely effect.

The band took a back seat for a few moments as Alynda Lee Segarra performed a new song on her own. Small Town Heroes is a heartbreaking story of a fight against drug addiction and the soft yet highly emotional vocals were received by a near silent audience, so enthralled were they by the song.

It was back to a four piece for What’s Wrong With Me, a lovely blues track dripping with regrets, and then Daniella with added harmonica to give a different effect. Another new song was added to the repertoire, St Roch Blues. This one is about a neighbourhood in New Orleans and the depth of feeling in Segarra’s vocals was intense. Rambling Gal was yet another highlight, a joyous song of the south that had everyone dancing along.

The band did not make it off the stage before an encore was demanded. And they were more than happy to oblige, playing the well known Time Is On My Side, which became a singalong, and finally Junebug Waltz, a country style track that provided the perfect ending to the night.

Hurray For The Riff Raff are a fine band with great musical talent. But the heart and soul of the group is Alynda Lee Segarra, and her gorgeous voice. This is a young woman who has the ability to hold an audience with the vitality of her vocal performance and to entertain with its beauty. And the tremendous reception that the audience gave the band showed that they knew that they had seen something special.