Live Review

Alex Wayt – King Tut’s, Glasgow

• 13th Aug 2011

Glasgow rocker Alex Wayt brought his Americana inspired brand of music to King Tut’s and a large audience enjoyed a quality set featuring both full band and solo acoustic tracks.

Till This Night: were the first support act. The local duo, Danielle Tonner on vocals and John William Muir on guitar, started with some gentle folk songs. The pace increased with Another Face which had a slightly more strident guitar sound. The more pop orientated songs allowed Tonner to show her vocal range which was impressive and the closing Better Day, a new song, was lovely.

Three piece rock band Dirty Sally were next. Their sound was powerful, building on dynamic drumming and solid bass lines with treble heavy guitar and some nice solos, but the vocals let them down a little. The combination of shouted lyrics and wavering pitch on the occasional slow passages didn’t match the quality of the instrumentation. Dear God was perhaps the highlight, a decent rock song with more melody than most.

Alex Wayt and his five piece band started their set in fine style with Life Experience and Someone Like You, both of which were fast paced rockers. Wayt has a strong voice that has a slight gravelly quality to add an edge to his powerful delivery. He is a confident band leader, directing his band and encouraging the crowd to clap and sing along.

The sound was excellent throughout, with all of the individual instruments clearly audible, yet combining nicely to back the frontman. Danny Thompson on drums and Graeme Glancy on bass set the beat while the keyboards of Paddy Gordon and Alan Jones on lead guitar added the frills. Steph Kewell on backing vocals offered a nice counterpoint to Wayt’s voice.

Two more solid songs followed, the melodies and anthemic choruses building nicely, before the band left the stage as Wayt switched from electric to acoustic guitar. This was the request section of the show.

Wayt chose the ballad 23 to play first, before asking for a cover. He rejected a call for Freebird before playing a couple of verses of Video Killed The Radio Star instead. Wayt then premiered a new track, She, a fine love song that was tender and emotional.

The best known song from Wayt’s repertoire is Borderline and he started this one on the acoustic guitar before the band rejoined him, taking the tempo up a notch. Wayt switched back to electric guitar to finish the song, which is gritty and heartfelt.

The set was closed with a new track, No Use Pretending. This one had an old style rock n roll feel to it, a joyous ode to living life to the full. Wayt and Steph Keogh traded lines, both displaying power and fine vocal control, before the big rock ending, There were clamours for an encore from the crowd but time had run out.

Alex Wayt is building a strong fan base as a songwriter and a live performer who is both passionate and entertaining. He demonstrated here in little more than half an hour that he has the quality to make his mark on the rock world.