That Devil Music Returns

This year has been somewhat underwhelming in terms of live bookings, with Channel Nowhere also struggling on the business front, but plans are under way to effectively reboot everything – particularly the live self-promotions side of things.  So, what with the new band and all, next year threatens to be a winner; however, no point in waiting for the bells to start ramping things up and the first of the new promotions – last Friday’s That Devil Music at The 13th Note – was a good one.  A great line-up (joining me were Missing Cat, Sleepy Eyes Nelson and Ghosts Of Progress) and a healthy turnout, despite direct competition from two or three other gigs in Glasgow on the same night.

The night had gotten off to an inauspicious start with a few technical problems making me late setting-out and the sudden onset of torrential rain meaning that phoning a taxi was useless (Friday night?  Rain!?  Quick, Morag, turn the phones off!).  I decided to walk the three miles to the venue and as a result had to leave my back-up guitar at home as I was carrying a bag of leads/stock, an amp and my new guitar, a Vintage Synergy electric-acoustic.  Luckily after a bit I was able to flag a cab and got to the Note in time for a quick soundcheck – only to find that the new guitar is fucked.  It seems that somewhere between checking it out when I bought it a couple of months ago and the gig, the pick-up had slipped and was only effectively picking up the bottom four strings, while producing some unwanted distortion for good measure.  Nothing that could be fixed on the spot.  Gah!

Luckily for me, Gaz from Missing Cat came to the rescue and lent me his slide guitar, a cool wee ’80s Vox – which is a solid-body electric (thanks to Sleepy Eyes Nelson and Lew from Ghosts for offers of the use of their guitars as well).  It was tuned to open E flat so it meant singing a tone higher than usual (I tune to D flat as a rule – and retuning another chap’s guitar is just not done!), and modifying the planned set-list to take into account the electric sound and the fact I’d only be playing slide (I had planned to use a variety of tunings on the new guitar), but it all worked out in the end.  Thankfully it went down well, too – must have seemed a bit more of a shambles than usual from out front!

Sleepy Eyes Nelson played a blinder – he always does – including a tune or two I don’t think I’d heard him do before.  I think this was his last UK gig before swanning off to The USA for a tour there with Slate Dump, and I loaded him up with copies of Graveyard Full Of Blues (our split CD) to take with him.

Although we’d been in touch back-and-forward for a while now, this was not only the first I’d played on a bill with Ghosts Of Progress, but the first time I’d seen them.  Great stuff!  A two-piece ‘augmented one-man-band’ line-up, though you wouldn’t guess to hear them that there wasn’t a separate drummer.  There’s just enough blues in what they do to keep that faction of the audience happy, but their set draws more on grunge, punk and even the gnarlier side of Britpop to make a truly splendid noise.

Missing Cat, I’ve played with a few times now, and they just keep getting better.  Tonight they got to play a wee bit longer than previously, and the breathing room of a longer set suits their style but with the audience shouting for more, they were stopped from playing a well deserved encore due to the overly conservative application of the venue’s music curfew (which had been brought forward by five minutes).  Still, it was a fine set.

All-in, the night was a success.  Some issues with the sound guy (spotted by various audience members as being engrossed in his iPhone throughout the night, most notably when ignoring someone on-stage who was having monitor-mix issues), and a pisser that a few people got past the door without paying.  Seriously, if you’re sneaking in to a four-acts-for-a-fiver grass-roots gig ..?  You’re a snidey wee wank.

I got home with some excellent new CDs  – the Ghosts Of Progress album, Exchange Your Problems For Dope & Whisky, is a full-on representation of their live set and doesn’t disappoint. The Missing Cat EP, Rise Of The All-Seeing Cat, a three-incher if ever I’ve seen one, is full of psych-blues goodness in groovy hand-made packaging.  I like their album from a couple of years back very much, but this has better, ‘bare-bones’ production and sounds like a more ‘true-to-live’ picture of the band.

Next up should be a more Americana/roots themed That Devil Music in November, venue to be decided (from here on in, unlike the old regular night, That Devil Music will be an as-and-when alt.blues/roots promotion, with different genre promotions appearing on a similar basis under the ‘That Devil Music Presents’ banner). November also sees a Big Blues Day solo set at The Ferry plus the first outing with the new (rock) band Dog Moon Howl at The 13th Note with Low Sonic Drift and Headless Kross, so that’s shaping up to be a good month.  Onwards!