re:mote voices

Headliner:Emmy The Great
Support: Young Husband, Ball Boy
Venue: King Tuts, Glasgow, 4th November 2007

My brother is in town, with a list of gigs to go to while here. Sunday the 4th and he has decided to go to see Elvis Perkins. We sit and watch videos on YouTube for Perkins and other bands. Perkins fails to interest me, no big deal. Someone called Emmy The Great is playing as well, but being familiar with Perkins' album he has his plan set. We watch Emmy clips anyway, and for me it looks like she has potential to be fun.

We go exploring, hanging out and doing stuff. Eventually my brother says, hell, let’s go see Emmy then. And I say sure, lets. We have dinner, wander passed buildings being demolished to take pictures, before heading to King Tuts (my second visit to the venue in a week, having not been there in ages). There are a couple of support bands listed, we've pottered about long enough to miss the first, which is okay with us. Ball Boy takes to the stage as we arrive, or at least, as he explains, one quarter of Ball Boy. A set of acoustic guitar and vocals, typical singer/songwriter stuff - which can be a clichéd average thing to see, but in this case it isn't. The songs have a certain magic - a man dreaming of flying to the moon, quirky love songs, and the like.

Next we have Young Husband, a member of Emmy's band, who comes up and plays a few tracks. Decent enough stuff, complimenting the evening as a whole. After that Emmy takes to the stage with her band, each member being introduced as being (a member of) another band. It just seems to be that kind of scene that they are all involved. Emmy is young, though getting older all the time, as this being her birthday proves. She apologises for wearing orthopaedic shoes, explains its because Glasgow is cold. At another point, while introducing a song she says the last time she played Glasgow it was so cold she couldn't get her hands to play the chords right and she had run off stage crying. Thankfully she doesn't run off stage, and has come prepared for the cold.

Emmy plays the guitar and sings, backed up by a guitarist, drummer, keyboardist and guest backing vocals. The music is a kind of folky poppy thing, which is pleasing and quirky. At times she reminds of Regina Spektor in aspects of her performance, so it should be no surprise that she covers one of Spektor's songs on her EP. The EP, which was on sale at the gig, also includes a Pixies cover - I suspect she played that live, though it didn't click in my head till I heard the recorded version.

Emmy The Great appealed to my sense of humour, with the quirks of her performance, and the form of her songs. The quality of her voice suits the quick little pop songs, strung together over the course of an hour or so, to provide a quite delightful night.