Ratboys @ Mono, Glasgow, 28 May

Earnest songwriting is having a musical moment – not that it ever really went away. Bruce Springsteen has been crafting blue-collar struggles into cinematic rock anthems for over 50 years, while newer voices like guitar wunderkind MJ Lenderman – heralded as “indie rock’s No. 1 prospect” – and fellow multi-project protagonist Nate Amos, whose sad song catalogue has him lauded as “the voice of a generation”, continue to carry the torch. Openers Former Champ are in the throes of Lose Something when we arrive, serving up more of a bright Belair Lip Bombs sheen than Americana but still tapping into the same sincere songwriting. 

Alt-country connoisseurs Ratboys also know a thing or two about the appetite for authentic indie storytelling, especially on their most recent record, Singin’ To An Empty Chair. “We’re so happy to be back in your city," begins vocalist/guitarist Julia Steiner, effortlessly charming the sweaty throng gathered beneath Mono’s circular skylight as the summer sun lingers outside. “We were in Scotland six months ago. It wasn’t Glasgow, babe, let me tell you that!” (The Chicago foursome played Edinburgh’s Mash House back in November). Despite the venue’s modest size, which is full to the brim, Marcus Nuccio’s drums would sound right at home in a stadium setting – all Phil Collins-strength tom fills and thunderous command. There’s always time for someone with such a healthy appreciation of the ride-cymbal bell, too.

Steiner’s pristine vocals sit somewhere between the headstrong tenderness of Waxahatchee and the wiry indie chops of Juliana Hatfield or Tracy Bonham. On tracks like What’s Right? and Light Night Mountains All That, the guitars are just as gnarly as Steiner returns to the same bruised realisation: 'I tried to take you there / But you didn’t care / You didn’t care'. Each night, Steiner tells us, she challenges herself to transport the crowd to somewhere ordinary but mundane.

“Tonight, we’re going back 24 hours in time to the ferry from Northern Ireland to Scotland,” she explains. “We chose the perfect corner couch with a sunset view. We saw dolphins, and then the TV turned on of its own volition, and suddenly there’s a BBC medical documentary about an anal replacement.” The room is both transported and visibly uncomfortable. “No expense was spared on the camera work, the zooming, or the colour grade,” Steiner continues. “But now we know it can be done,” she adds, as the band saunter into the gentle ramblings of Strange Love – presumably not directed at the patient and his new perineum. The storytelling and standout harmonies draw hearty applause, which Steiner encourages us to extend to tonight’s Glasgow-based support; “Our dear, dear friends, Former Champ. Great hangs – even better musicians!”

Barrelling through The Window – a crystalline meditation on grief – and Just Want You to Know the Truth, which wrestles with our curious obsession with Antiques Roadshow and the urge to make sense of the past, Steiner eventually admits: “the rock and roll portion is coming to a close.” We’re spared the ritual of mystery around an encore in such a tight space. Back-to-back with bodies, the crowd stays put as Ratboys crash through their final few, accompanied by one last earnest reflection from Steiner. “We actually ate here ten years ago. We had the vegan fish and chips, and thought, ‘Maybe we’ll play here someday.’ And you sold it out!” Not an empty chair in sight.