the scotsman

concert review - trashcan sinatras in musselburgh

september 23, 2005

BRUNTON THEATRE, MUSSELBURGH

WHEN The Trashcan Sinatras' lead singer Francis Reader announced that Tune Up - a Scottish Arts Council-funded programme taking musical talent to areas most touring bands never reach - was about playing backwater "holes", you fully expected the Honest Toun audience to bend his ear about it. Thankfully though, Reader's band charmed the pants off them; the term "hole", he later added, was one The Smiths once used to describe his own home town of Irvine.

Earlier, 25-year-old Glaswegian singer-songwriter Roddy Hart did a fine impersonation of a young Kris Kristofferson: tooting harmonicas, scratching big acoustic guitars and tickling the piano with the experience of a grizzled performer - one trapped inside the body of a TopShop menswear model.

Hobotalk, on the other hand, deserve to headline the Usher Hall. With vocals that echo Crosby, Stills and Nash and songs that would give even Mark Eitzel goosebumps, the hard-bitten Edinburghers are one of the finest live bands you'll ever see. I'm not quite sure about the truck-driver hats and playing in bare feet, however.

Another band who've been there, done that and sold the T-shirt - only to buy it back again - The Trashcan Sinatras play a simple game. Poker-faced, heads down, their effortlessly brilliant music never fails to take you to heaven, hell and somewhere in between. So comfortable were they that Reader took to playing in his socks.

Tune Up proved all three groups know a thing or three about hitting the right notes.

This review originally appeared in The Scotsman.