Tramps With Amps @ The Soundhaus
Glasgow's new monthly platform for the best unsigned bands in Scotland
| 13 Sep 2006
Tramps with Amps aims to provide a monthly platform for the best unsigned bands in Scotland. The line-ups are regularly complimented by touring acts. In addition to the bands on offer tonight the venue also features an appropriately inspired jewellery stall by Rocks and Roll.
My Shotgun Sister get the night underway with their brand of La's-like garage rock. Next up are Brady Cole from Fife, who displayed a nice line in vocal harmonies to go along with their heavy rock sound.
Following them come Meeklejon. It may be good from a marketing perspective to have a signer who looks like Ashton Kutcher, but it's less of a selling point if his singing is on a par with the Punk'd star's acting. With saxophone, keyboards and band members decades apart in ages The Arguments look like a group straight out of The Commitments. Although their music is for the most part forgettable, Alan Law on bass has a strong voice that belies his young years.
The penultimate act of the evening is Boston's Baby Strange. The night suffers from the perennial problem of gigs with multiple bands on the bill, as after each performance the band and their mates who were there to see them, all leave. This makes for a distinct lack of atmosphere. Baby Strange don't let that bother them as they put in the night's best performance. With their own rockers like Nobody Knows You Like I Do and a spirited cover of The Undertones' Teenage Kicks, they have the handful of the audience who were still up for it throwing themselves around the floor.
The night concludes with Sleepmode. Two in the morning isn't the best time to knock out a heartfelt ballad, but Awkward Pauses succeeds in being the finest song of the evening. Just like Baby Strange, Sleepmode perform like they're taking on a stadium rather than a dwindling nightclub crowd.
On the whole this is a satisfying night of rocking, although there's apparently a need for more incentive to keep everyone who comes through the doors inside to catch all the action. I must also mention that this was a very male dominated evening, of all the bands there's not one single woman. Where are all of you female rockers?
My Shotgun Sister get the night underway with their brand of La's-like garage rock. Next up are Brady Cole from Fife, who displayed a nice line in vocal harmonies to go along with their heavy rock sound.
Following them come Meeklejon. It may be good from a marketing perspective to have a signer who looks like Ashton Kutcher, but it's less of a selling point if his singing is on a par with the Punk'd star's acting. With saxophone, keyboards and band members decades apart in ages The Arguments look like a group straight out of The Commitments. Although their music is for the most part forgettable, Alan Law on bass has a strong voice that belies his young years.
The penultimate act of the evening is Boston's Baby Strange. The night suffers from the perennial problem of gigs with multiple bands on the bill, as after each performance the band and their mates who were there to see them, all leave. This makes for a distinct lack of atmosphere. Baby Strange don't let that bother them as they put in the night's best performance. With their own rockers like Nobody Knows You Like I Do and a spirited cover of The Undertones' Teenage Kicks, they have the handful of the audience who were still up for it throwing themselves around the floor.
The night concludes with Sleepmode. Two in the morning isn't the best time to knock out a heartfelt ballad, but Awkward Pauses succeeds in being the finest song of the evening. Just like Baby Strange, Sleepmode perform like they're taking on a stadium rather than a dwindling nightclub crowd.
On the whole this is a satisfying night of rocking, although there's apparently a need for more incentive to keep everyone who comes through the doors inside to catch all the action. I must also mention that this was a very male dominated evening, of all the bands there's not one single woman. Where are all of you female rockers?