★★★★★
A new venue to me, a wee night at St Luke’s in the east end of Glasgow to see Norwegian sensation Sigrid. Once in, the venue filled quite quickly as it’s quite small, very intimate. The first band came on and failed to introduce themselves so I’ve no idea who they were. I gathered they were Norwegian and they were good performers too. It seems such a waste to go on tour with an up and coming act to promote yourself and then not make the most of getting your name in peoples heads.
Apart from the obvious marketing faux pas, the opening band were good: comprising of keys, drums, guitar and vocals, they were heavily soul based with electronic elements and really gave a good account. If I have one criticism of them it would be that their brand of electronic needed an update, an oomph as it seemed very dated. They played for 25-30 minutes and it was a good set, well executed.
The gathering in the hall warmed to it and were certainly ready for the main act. The hall was filled with a very eclectic mix of gig goers, from young teen girls with parental accompaniment to middle-aged adults, and also a fair amount of seemingly Glasgow based Norwegians showing some national support. I also noticed one girl with IKEA branded socks; I’m sure that’s the wrong national identity but Scandinavian all the same, I suppose.
The venue turn-around between bands was very slow, which I suppose is to be expected at the smaller venues but by this time the full hall was restless for Sigrid and 40 minutes seemed like a long time to wait. When she finally took the stage she was everything I expected from what I’d seen of her on Jools Holland and Graham Norton: a ball of youthful enthusiasm right from the off and dancing about to every nuance of her set. She started off with 'Go To War' followed swiftly by 'Schedules' which all the crowd reacted well to.
