I must admit to a feeling of disappointment when the first of the night's three support acts, Poppy, took to the stage. A girl with an acoustic guitar singing quirky and not so quirky tales of the mundane - cups of tea and eating pizza with her mates - in a Kate Nash-esque accentuated cockney style, she wasn't terrible, but, well, not my bag. And the prospect of two more solo performers with guitars hardly thrilled me.
The next guy up confirmed my fears. He had a lovely jumper and turned in a very standard singer/songwriter type set. Yawn. And 'even in silence you are the loudest sound' is a terrible lyric, not to mention the biggest oxymoron I've encountered in an age.
Debutant, from Aberdeen, does something rather different with the one man and a guitar formula. Armed with a bank of effects pedals, his set built from a delicate, gentle instrumental introduction through a course of well-crafted songs and shimmering sounds not generally associated with guitars. Compelling stuff.
Glissando get bigger every time I see them. Bigger in terms of popularity: the last time I saw them play the same venue, it was a very intimate and sparsely attended affair. Tonight, it's much fuller, and it's good to see, because they deserve an audience. Bigger in size: initially a two-piece, then a four, and tonight they're expanded to a 5-piece. These additional members have been accredited with the moniker of the Fleeting Glimpse Ensemble, many of whom boast impressive musical CVs.
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Partly as a consequence of the increased personnel, they're also bigger in sound. Tonight, the sweeping soundscapes are truly immense. Not in terms of volume, but in terms of depth and intensity. It might be the first night of the tour, but there are no rough edges here. The older songs are luscious and textured, yet retain a haunting fragility. There's a new song, too, and it's slow insistent rhythm adds a new dimension to the Glissando sound. There's clearly an intricate attention to detail: the layers of reverb all combine to create a perfect sense of space in which it's incredibly easy to get blissfully lost. The performance is truly captivating, mesmerising. There are a couple of talkers who I have to ask to shut up, because complete quiet is required for Glissando. There's a quality about Glissando which I can only describe as magical, and tonight's performance is the best I've seen from them yet.
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