CMAT @ Barrowlands, Glasgow, 2 Mar
CMAT completes her Euro-Country tour with five nights in Scotland, kicking off celebrations with a firebrand performance that leaves us with lessons in how to serve scunt
Before becoming the diva we know today, Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson opened the Barrowlands for an unnamed band, which she tells us was “one of the worst gigs of my life”. Tonight’s booking, which sees the Ballroom filled to capacity and buzzing with anticipation, has been a years-in-the-making attempt at a Scottish redemption arc.
Katy J Pearson’s records feature intricate backings, but tonight she enraptures the early crowd with nothing but a guitar and her vocals, which are powerful with an almost Dolly-like lilt. Her opening act is a rare treat, a chance to hear tracks like Beautiful Soul and Take Back the Radio with a slightly more country slant. It’s the perfect aperitif, and Pearson seems to have had a better first gig at the Barrowlands than our headliner.
Backing musicians, clad in cowboy boots, stetsons and short shorts, take their places under a gigantic Euro coin, emblazoned with the guest of honour’s glamour shot. The band begins playing Janis Joplining, a spotlight throws our attention to the back of the room, the crowd turns and cheers for a lone performer in red bangs and blue eyeliner, with a sparkling tooth; this is Dunboyne Diana, aka CMAT.
The Dublin-born star makes her way to the stage for The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, belting a storm and lining up two hours of stage theatrics, leg kicks, singalongs and fingerpicks fired to the crowds. CMAT stole her own spotlight with her opening stunt – but her larger-than-life persona lands best when wrangling The Very Sexy CMAT Band into elaborate choreography. They freeze-frame, march backwards and line dance with such comedic timing they feel like another appendage of CMAT. After a few more anthems (I Don’t Really Care For You; Aw, Shoot!) CMAT prowls around with a glass of white wine, dripping with attitude and pugnaciously shouting out ultra-fans – she commemorates the next song to whoever made their friend that “Dumfries Diana” top. “Recently I found myself wearing a lot of tartan, and when I wear it I say, ‘Ooh, I’m serving Scottish cunt’. I’ve said it so frequently I’ve had to shorten it to ‘scunt’.”
Image: CMAT @ Barrowlands, Glasgow, 2 Mar by Kate Johnston
There are other interludes; CMAT discusses the hateful comments that inspired her to write Take a Sexy Picture of Me (and when she plays it, yes, everyone does the dance), the band play their traditional soundcheck song, “the Scottish national anthem” (Inner Smile by Texas), and the fiery frontwoman reminisces with her keyboardist about The Old Country – “Can you believe when we played in Cambridge nobody cheered the word ‘Ireland’?”
The fans I have the pleasure of meeting are all from Belfast, and the atmosphere by the bars and merch stands is aglow with Irish accents – but the excitement shared across the whole crowd is what makes it a quintessentially Glasgow gig. We give her “Here we, here we, here we fucking go”, she gives us a too-short round of Caledonia in her inimitable operatic drawl.
At the showstopping triple encore (EURO-COUNTRY, I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby! and Stay For Something), it’s hard to imagine this iconoclastic rodeo queen in places or times she’s gone unappreciated, as we've been reminded through the night and through her writing – but tonight it's evident that The Very Sexy CMAT Band and the Barrowlands Ballroom is a match made in heaven. As pampered as the fans are by her stacked setlist and dynamic vamping, it’s clear that CMAT is equally grateful for the reception she gets, converting all that adoration into pure divadom.