That Wouldn’t Happen To Beyoncé – Jane Weaver live

Jane Weaver / Adwaith – Oran Mor, Glasgow – Tuesday 23rd April 2024

First up were Welsh rockers Adwaith. I didn’t know much about them beforehand but enjoyed their set a lot.

The first couple of tracks were grunge rockers but imminent single ‘Mys’ marked a change of style towards something more dance orientated. Another new song however was an extended guitar work-out which provided something of a midset climax before they finished with a run of songs that sounded much more anthemic.

Their mix of styles made them hard to pin down but, whilst I didn’t buy anything at the show, I’m definitely interested enough to give them further listens.

So to the headliner.

My previous Jane Weaver experience was a bit mixed. After an impressive start the Kirkcaldy set lost momentum towards the end. However, on this occasion the line-up of two (or even three) guitars promised something more direct. I’m not sure it worked out quite like that but the extra instrumentation, particularly the drums, did help.

Only having the last three records, I did wonder how much of the set I would recognise but in the end there was only a handful of songs that were new to me.

Instead the set was dominated by songs from the new ‘Love In Constant Spectacle‘ record with back catalogue dotted throughout.

Last time, I also remember Jane herself being a bit reserved onstage but that was certainly not the case here as she delivered a range of amusing observations throughout.

Being honest, I was a bit worried that the songs might sound a little samey but any fears on that score were quickly allayed. At the harder end of the spectrum, ‘Is Metal’ gained the most from the live setting transformed as it was into a rocker whilst ‘Revolution of Super Vision’ was off kilter, swooping pop.

Overall, the set did tend a bit towards mid-paced songs but the back end of the set got an input of energy from an extended coda to ‘Family of the Sun’ which led into ‘Flock’ to close.

Best of the lot though was the encore ‘I Need A Connection’ on which the band developed the sort of extended groove that I was probably expecting a bit more of.