Music
Matthew Logan Vasquez
Stereo, Glasgow
Keith Bruce
five stars
IT WILL be of little consequence to the tens of thousands who choose to stand outside over a Scottish weekend, but they missed the best rock'n'roll show in Glasgow at Stereo on Thursday evening.
Matt Vasquez will be known – but not by many – from US band Delta Spirit, before which he was busking on Californian streets. That fine band is currently on what has now become a rather long hiatus and Vasquez has recently released his second solo album, Does What He Wants, which received a rather dusty review in The Chronicle of Austin, Texas a couple of months back.
Be that as it may, the live Vasquez experience is phenomenonal, a reinvention of the guitar power trio with his superb bass and drums compadres both adding backing vocals when things go a little country, as they do on a Texas number or a little Nashville excursion. When he decides it is time for dancing, the frontman just plays the intro over until partners are chosen, as the audience have been instructed.
Most of the time, though, we are in full rock'n'roll mode, and in case you are not across the antecedents of the stage formation, Vasquez throws in samples of Cream's I Feel Free and Motorhead's Ace of Spades as an aide memoire. His vocal antics are as athletic as his mastery of the Gibson Les Paul (and later Fender Telecaster), but aiming to run up the wall Donald O'Connor-style was perhaps a bit bold.
Singer song-writer David Ramirez was also highly versatile on his Guild acoustic, in the support slot, and when he commanded attention for his beautifully-crafted songs, he won it. A first visit to Glasgow from Austin for him, but this reviewer says he can come back anytime.
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