Broken Chanter / Raveloe – The Old Lab, Summerhall, Edinburgh – Thursday 11th April 2024 and Broken Chanter / The Cords / Raveloe – Beat Generator Live, Dundee – Saturday 13th April 2024
Two gigs – one review.
But before getting to the shows, it’s maybe worth taking stock a little.
With the third Broken Chanter album ‘Chorus of Doubt’ David MacGregor has now released as many albums in his solo guise as he did with Kid Canaveral. Looking over those six records its clear that David has built up a significant body of work with ‘Chorus ..,’ building on his core strength of melody but also incorporating post-punk guitars and rhythms to once again expanded his range.
The Thursday show in Edinburgh was the first in a run of Spring dates promoting the new Balbum, whilst we also picked up the Saturday show in Dundee after the previous night’s show in Aberdeen.
As you might have expected there were a lot of similarities between the two shows but also some differences.
The level of the band’s performance was high on both nights. Given that the new album was designed to be played live and that current line-up is the first choice BC live selection, this wasn’t a surprise, but there was no evidence of first night nerves in Edinburgh. The sound was pretty good at both shows too, perhaps it cut through a little better at Summerhall, but not to any significant extent.
The setlists were near identical with the running order slightly rejigged for Dundee. The emphasis was rightly on the new record but there was also space for the five big hitters from ‘Catastrophe Hits’ with a couple from the debut. This meant a very high tempo set with ‘Horse Island’ and a solo rendition of ‘Don’t Move to Denmark’ providing the respite in amongst the rockers.
Musically, David and Bart provided the guitar muscle for the tunes, something which they’ve been building towards in the last few years.
Of the new songs, a flurry of early tunes from the record set the tone for the show whilst album closer ‘So Much For The End of History’ was utilised as the last number on both nights but especially in Dundee following on directly from ‘Allow Yourself’ led to a rousing finale .
The differences? Well, it felt like the Edinburgh response was for the most part warmer, whilst David seemed to find the Dundee crowd a little harder to connect with.
There was also no encore in Edinburgh after David announced they weren’t doing one. Whilst I totally get (and agree with) David’s desire to present his best songs in the main set, I’ve tended to think that when bands are up front about this, then the show tends to peter out at the end of the set as happened at Edinburgh. However false “demands” for an encore may be, they still do enhance the atmosphere at a show.
Although we were expecting the same in Dundee, in fact there was no mention of “no encore” which allowed the audience reaction to build over the last few songs. Even at that I was pleasantly surprised when David returned to the stage alone for a rendition of ‘Low Winter Sun’ which rounded off the evening perfectly.
Overall both shows were a joy, There’s a good few dates down south coming up with the promise of more dates in the autumn. Go see them if they’re near you.
In terms of supports, there were differences between the shows. Whilst Raveloe opened both shows, in Dundee there was the added bonus of a set from the Cords, an impossibly young duo from the west of Scotland (I think).
Although unfortunately we missed the start of Kim’s set in Dundee the two sets were broadly similar, drawing principally from ‘Exit Light’. Kim did change things around a bit though with a couple of earlier songs (‘New House’ and ‘Steady’) played in Edinburgh and ‘Catkins’ getting an outing in Dundee. Intriguingly, one new song ‘As I Am’ featured in both sets.
Whilst Kim remains as engaging as ever between the songs, both shows felt slightly less delicate than previous solo outings. Whether that was because the sets were mainly performed on electric guitar (swapping to acoustic in Dundee unfortunately led to the discovery that the sound engineer was embarrassingly absent from his post!) or whether it was simply down to an increased confidence following the band shows, I couldn’t say. But it’s going to be interesting to see where she goes next.
The wild cards in Dundee were the Cords and whilst their set was short, it was bristling with energy. The songs didn’t really depart from a C-86 template, early Shop Assistants are probably a good indication of where they’re currently at, but time is very much on their side to develop a wider range and I hope that I’ll get the chance to see them again.
Gallery of phone pics from both shows:
Manic Pop Thrills 
Thanks for these Mike.
I didn’t find time to write-up a review of the Glasgow show for TVV, but it would have been effusive. The band were in exceptional form all night, with special mention to Charlotte for battling through what was a viral infection that had made her vocal participation doubtful until the last moment.
Glasgow also got treated to ‘Low Winter Sun’ for a solo encore.
All in all, a tremendous night. Broken Chanter really deserve to be reaching a much bigger audience.