We went to check out the first gig by Glasgow supergroup John’s Not Mad on Friday. They’ve got people from Lapsus Linguae, Akira and Peeps Into Fairyland on board and had the 13th Note absolutely mobbed. Queues to get in! I’ve never seen the like. Possibly.

Anyway, they were pretty good. Seemed to be aiming for a Joy Division/Mogwai kind of thing but with an added country feel. When it was slow and sad with interacting girl/boy vocals it was great, when they tried to rock out [or, painfully, cover Love Will Tear Us Apart] it went a little awry. Considering it was a first gig it was good stuff although considering they all play in other bands so it should be. Aye, keep an eye out. They’ll be coming to an independently-minded website you know very well rather soon.

After that I finally got to see The Boy Cartographer, which is most of Pentothal’s other band. I really liked them – open and friendly and heartfelt. A bit like a sleepy Spare Snare.

The headliners were Homescience from Edinburgh and they were highly amusing. All their songs were about writing songs and girls and September being crap so I had much fun trying to guess what the obvious rhyme would be. They had some charm though with their slightly wobbly voices and jangly indie guitars. If they were more interesting they could be the new Pastels but sadly they’re more likely to be the new Travis. If they’re not Steve Lamacq’s favourite band already then they soon will be. They’re never going to run out of subjects for songs either since they’ve still not covered how it can be fun in the sun or how a car can drive far or having a dream about ice cream. They had a xylophone though, that was good.

Posted: 03|10|02 at 4:17 pm. Filed under: live reviews.
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