North Fife’s own Kenny Anderson brought a surprisingly muscular set of songs to the Doghouse in Dundee on Thursday.
King Creosote played a fresh batch of tunes at a very well attended venue in support of recent albums That Might Be It, Darling and the Mercury-nominated Jon Hopkins collaboration Diamond Mine.
Anderson’s recent decision to release vinyl-only albums at live shows may have made it harder for a newcomer to get into the music, but any accusations of wilful difficulty on his part were disarmed by what some would consider a straight-ahead, pop-oriented setlist.
There were a couple of newer cuts from Darling, such as the pulsing and rhythmic Doubles Underneath. Twinges of folk, bluegrass and lo-fi remained in older songs, such as No Way She Exists and Cowardly Custard, but the tight eight-piece performance gave them added punch. The bass sound was crisp, pulling together the airier acoustic guitar and djembe very well.
St Andrews/Edinburgh four-piece Kid Canaveral opened with a confident and proficient run-through of a short recording career to date. You Only Went Out To Get Drunk summed up the strengths of their performance: quirky, harmonic and with authentic vocals. There were echoes of Victoria by The Fall, which is never a bad thing. Left and Right is a delightful female vocal number, which in another life could have graced a Vaselines or San Lorenzo single.
A strange handover of sorts saw KC and KC combine to form KC Squared for a few Creosote numbers before Anderson brought his own band on.
I can’t say Canaveral’s poppier leanings suited the material but the clash made for an interesting change.
John Taylor’s Month Away, one of the year’s stand-out songs and a beautifully sombre number, became a soaring arena standard, the likes of which Snow Patrol would be proud.