published: 20 /
4 /
2008
In the fine surroundings of Glasgow's Oran Mar, Adrian Huggins watches City and Colour, the side solo project of Alexisonfire's Dallas Green, play a humorously intimate and in every respect perfect gig
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What an incredible venue for such a great live act ! It had probably less than 500 people in it, but the setting was absolutely perfect. With the vast majority of the crowd sitting down in this old converted church, there was a fantastic relaxed and intimate feel to things which really suited the music. With Dallas Green pretty much putting on a one man show, save for two or three numbers tonight, it was just him, his guitar and the audience and the songs he played thrived in this environment.
The fact that pretty much everyone in the venue sang nearly every word speaks volumes about the love people have for Green and his solo project but also for his band Alexisonfire. While still fairly underground in the UK, City and Colour is one of the biggest names in Canadian music and this made it all the more special for the people in attendance. On stage Green had a calm yet charming demeanour, quietly cracking jokes with the audience yet all the while never rushing the songs.
The set was a long one which consisted of an equal amount of material from his debut album, ‘Sometimes’ and his latest release ‘Bring Me Your Love’. He did not, however, include probably his biggest hit ‘Save Your Scissors’ which was a touch disappointing as it would be an incredible arm hair raiser.I really admire him for having the belief in the rest of his material which is far too good for people to like it on the back of one just song. The songs played live, such as ‘Sam Malone’, ‘Like Knives’, and ‘Waiting’ had a whole new edge and depth to them and were chilling live, their stripped down sound coming across perfectly in this setting.
A solo rendition of Alexisonfire favourite ‘Boiled Frogs’ made much of the audiences almost explode with ecstasy as he re-worked this normally speedy and aggressive sounding song into something utterly breathtaking, which had the entire crowd singing along.
In the incredible setting of Oran Mor this was nothing short of a perfect gig. The songs were played superbly with Green’s voice sounding as slick and stunning as it does on record. The venue itself lent itself so well to the intimacy of the songs and the artist. Gutted, you weren’t there.
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