What: Richmond Fontaine
Where: Stereo, Glasgow
When: 9th September
Reviewed by: David B
Whilst the majority of Glasgow attempted to roar on Scotland’s football team to the World Cup, a few miles from Hampden Park a couple of hundred folk chose to catch up with this alt.country band from Portland, Oregon.
Stereo in Glasgow, it has to be said isn’t the best venue if your not in the first few rows at the front. Then old lumps of concrete and ducting in this converted basement get in the way and make it interesting to say the least to get a decent view, despite the low numbers in the crowd.
However Willy Vlautin and the rest of the band made it an outstanding and intimate night. Promoting their best album to date the band launched into tracks from “We Used to Think the Highway Sounded like a River” with gusto and the songs had a much heavier sound than on the album.
Willy Vlautin is a novelist and takes great pride in his lyrics. Fantastic new songs like The Pull, The Boyfriends and 43 immediately conjure up mental images of downbeat, small-town America, where heat and dust sit alongside clapped out old pick ups and trailer trash. He is also an excellent singer and charges each song with feeling.
Its emotive stuff, and you can hear a pin drop throughout as Willy and the band sing their story songs. Fans of the Springsteen of Ghost of Tom Joad, and bands like The National or Neil Young really should check them out as it really is a mystery why such a quality group with nine albums under their belt still don’t have a bigger reputation and following.
Regrettably I am knocking a star off this review for the ending. After an evening of beauty and Americana characters the band chose to end the evening with two “melt your face” heavy guitar fuelled jams that seemed at odds with the fabulous songs that had gone before. A disappointing end to a magical night.
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