Tilly and the Wall at King Tuts, 23/10/08

23rd October 2008 - Tilly & The Wall and Moth and the Mirror at King Tuts

After catching Glasgow's Moth and the Mirror on the Your Sound stage at the Connect festival in August I was determined to see them again. Their support slot with the delightful Tilly and the Wall gave me the perfect opportunity. Tuts is still my favourite Glasgow venue for gigs. The intimate size, the history, tradition and atmosphere combine to make the perfect setting. One where new bands can strive to play and established bands enjoy coming back to.

Moth and the Mirror came on shortly after 9pm to a reasonably sized crowd for the first band on a bill of three. Singer Stacey Slevwright plucked gently at her guitar and the rest of the band soon joined in, creating a beautiful melodic sound. It's difficult to desribe the Moth and the Mirror's sound. They remind me of a number of bands, but they are very different in a number of ways - a good thing in my book. They benefit from having a percussion player as well as a drummer, three guitarists, including Stacey, and bass. SO they can be a bit more ambitious and inventive with their sound compared to your normal 3 or 4 piece band.

'Soft Insides' and the brilliantly titled 'Hope Is An Anchor' were excellent but the highlight of their set was a stripped down cover of MGMT's 'Kids'. A band worth watching and checking out.

 Tilly and the Wall came on to a flurry of beats and bleeps. They are definitely a band that can't be pigeon-holed. When I caught them at Glasgow's Indian Summer in 2006 they were almost folky, backed by a girl tap dancing as percussion. The tap dancer is still there, but their new album is more electro-pop. If anything the combination of styles as won them new fans but left their audience confused as to what to expect live. The younger fans in the audience were definitely there for the new material, such as the infectious single 'Beat Control', while older fans lapped up the tunes played in the encore. The sound for the band could have been better and they did appear to be miming for some of the new electro pop songs, but it was an enjoyable gig, if only for the eye candy provided by the two blonde singers!