It doesn’t happen too often but I boarded the 525 to Glasgow the other night unchaperoned.

My destination was The Garage on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street. As I walked up the street, I passed my beloved fire damaged O2 ABC. It was my first view of this awesome venue since The Art School fire back in June destroyed it. Heart breaking… #RIP Glitterball

The familiar sight of the yellow truck front sticking out from the building signalled I’d arrived at my destination.

And who was I there to see? Well, it was billed as a co- headline show with All That Remains and Sevendust. In truth though, I was there to see Sevendust.

With a rail spot secured safely to one side to avoid the inevitable crowd surfers (seriously, I wish venues would ban it), I watched the opening act Blind Channel take to the stage.

Sorry…time to adopt my Thumper philosophy “If you can’t say nuffin’ nice, don’t say nuffin’ at all.”

Moving on….

All That Remains are one of those bands I’d heard of but never heard. Recently, like many music fans, I’d read of the tragic death of their guitarist Oli Herbert. It’s a testament to these guys that they were even out on stage at all.

With his baseball cap pulled down low, front man Phil Labonte led the band through a strong fifteen song set.

Filling in on guitar was Jason Richardson. Noticeably youngers than the rest of the band, Jason is one talented young musician. His playing is breathtakingly fast! An awesome sight to behold at close quarters.

As I mentioned, I’m unfamiliar with All That Remains’ music. I thoroughly enjoyed what I heard. I feel slightly guilty that I can’t name any stand out songs from their set but I can’t help but feel that this band are understandably still a little bit broken and need more time to recover from the loss of one of their founding members.

Sevendust have been on my “bands to see live” list for a few years and this was the first opportunity I’d had to tick them of that list.

They were worth waiting for!

Sevendust opened their all too short set with Dirty from their current album All I See Is War.

Glasgow immediately took these guys to their hearts. Lajon Witherspoon had them eating out of the palm of his hand within seconds.

Sound and guitar issues seemed to plague John Connolly for much of the set but ever the professional, he worked his way through all the guitar and lead changes.

Highlight song of the night for me was Enemy from their 2003 album Seasons. Awesome song. Here have a listen: –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku8tAJ_tGLk

In true Glasgow style, the crowd began to chant “here we, here we, here we fucking go” mid-set much to Lajon’s amusement. Having clarified what the Scottish fans were actually singing, the band joined in for a couple of rounds then Lajon said they may just have to write a song based on it. It’s just a matter of time until someone does!

So about eighty minutes after they started, Sevendust closed their set with Face To Face.

After waiting for so long to finally see this band “face to face”, I just wish their set had been longer…well long enough to include some of my personal favourite songs. Next time….