Welcome to another in the long line of “Mosh reviews a live show by a band he never encountered until walking into the venue”. Ove the last few months I’ve expanded on the festival / support band mentality where you go to see the bands you do know and end up discovering some great ones you didn’t, by ignoring the “going to see bands you do know” part. I mean, there are countless headliners I don’t know, so why miss out on some great music purely because a band is already at table-topping size?
Tonight was a country double-header and a big one for our photographer Gavin who is a huge fan of Shane Smith. Mr Smith and his merry Saints have apparently filled out the Royal Albert Hall in the past so tonight’s slightly cosier (though equally sold out) SWG3 TV Studio must have seen almost claustrophobic in comparison. Before him, though, William Clark Green and his own merry men took to the stage of an already rather packed venue.
Opening with a blast of, I think, David Bowie on the guitar they launched into “Rose Queen” and “Creek Don’t Rise” both of which cemented my belief that country music and rock music have very few boundaries between them. Great rhythms and guitar solos, songs you can sing along to… why compartmentalise?
Green himself is an affable front man, and happily introduces the band around him. With the exception of the fiddle (and, hey, quite a few rock bands have one – Yellow Card and Furious Dog spring immediately to mind) they’re otherwise Bon Jovi in chequered shirts and Stetsons. “Next Big Thing” and “Drunk Again” demonstrated the humour and self-deprecating nature of many country songs, and were a joy to listen to.
“Ringling Road” is a nice up-tempo number, and was counterpointed by the much slower and sadder “Still Think About You”, with lyrics I’m sure many of us can relate to from one point in our lives or another. They rounded up the set with “the song that gave us our big start”, “She Likes The Beatles” and on the strength of it I can see why this would have given them that step up. I’m assuming the recorded version doesn’t contain quite to much “Start Me Up” and “Hey Jude”! The two partial covers gave Green a chance to get the crowd singing, a clever trick as an opening band – playing a cover without quite playing a cover!
Definitely a good band to have opening, and definitely one I’d go and see again.
Now I’m a huge fan of people being who they want to be, dressing how they want to dress and expressing themselves. But can I please recommend that if you’re 6′ tall and in the middle of a crowd at a gig then you don’t wear a f’ing Stetson on your head? You know “that tall guy” who always stands in front of you at concerts? Well he was there tonight with added height and width with several people around me constantly dodging their heads around to see tonight’s headliner play a lengthy and history-covering set.
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Shane Smith & The Saints filled the small stage with both their bodies and noise for 21 songs-worth of toe-tappers and hoot-worthy country tracks. As stated, I’m not familiar with his / their stuff, but thoroughly enjoyed the ninety or so minutes the played. There is a huge variety in amongst all of the material with some absolute pearls in amongst them.
Starting gently with “Adeline” I could see people in the audience swaying from the off, obviously making this a good choice for those who know the songs. “Feather In the Wind” which followed couldn’t have sounded any more country, and the sound in the venue was spot on so the fiddle solos and guitars were clear above the bass and drum beats. Black Stone Cherry could fling “Mountain Girl” at an audience and they’d never know it was a country cover, heartfelt and rocking it’s a great number and led into “The Greys Between” and “Hurricane” (a cover of a song by another artist I don’t know, Levon Helm).
I notice that Smith has two songs in the set with very similar titles – “Fire In The Sky” which was up next, and “Fire In The Ocean” which followed some time later. I wonder if there is a link between them, and rest assured I’ll be Googling to find out. Soundwise they’re very different. The former’s quite hard-hitting, the latter reminds me more of something mellow by Willie Nelson and is, frankly, beautiful. One of the best songs that played, alongside “1,000 Wild Horses” which somehow managed to be both upbeat and maudlin at the same time.
Towards the end of the set, the majority of the band left the stage for a couple of slower numbers. Down to a two-piece for “All The Way” and “What A Shame”, goosebumps flared up and eyes got shiny. “All The Way” in particular is a hugely emotive and soulful track, and one glance around the venue showed multiple couples holding hands, or with arms around each other, completely wrapped up in the song and in each other. A genuinely wonderful extended moment and I’m sure something they’ll take away fondly from the gig.
Obviously, you want them to be going home with a bounce in their step though so the closing (almost) number was one you could jig to – “All I See Is You”. Country beats, rocking lead guitar solos, and a perfect example of the way these two styles of music complement each other. However, one more song snuck its way onto the setlist for this Glasgow show. A rendition of the traditional country song “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond” which went down an absolute storm.
Shane Smith’s PR basically bullied me into going to this show. I’d had a hectic couple of weeks (something like 10 shows in 14 days) and mentioned that I might be free on Tuesday night. “You’re getting put on the guest list then” was the response. Thanks, Chris. It kind of worked out!
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Photos by Lowrey Photography
