My 2020 music drought ended on Sunday evening. (Must have been the only drought in Scotland- it’s barely stopped raining this year so far!)

It had been 68 days since my last live music fix – too long!

No trains this time. I was accompanied and chauffeur driven by Miss Rose Wine (It’s been WAY too long since we last ventured out together!)

When we arrived at The Garage on a rather chilly evening, fortunately between storm squalls, we found a growing queue of music fans. A good start to the evening.

So, who were we queuing in the cold to see? Los Angeles’ own, New Year’s Day!

This was New Year’s Day’s first Scottish headline show. Those who read this blog regularly may recall that I said back in November that I hoped to see these guys headline a small venue. Seems the music gods have been listening.

First on the bill for the evening were Call Me Amour, fronted by Harry Redford formerly of Yashin. They ably got the evening off to an energetic start and, judging by the crowd’s reaction, had brought their own core fanbase with them. Call Me Amour were a new name to me, but these guys deserve to go far. Loved Harry Redford’s vocals. He brought a certain confidence to the stage as well as few high jumps! Check these guys out on You Tube

https://www.youtube.com/user/HarryRadfordOfficial

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Next up were Lowlives from Los Angeles- well half of them are. Their front man Lee Downer aka Lee Villain and drummer Luke Johnson are both of English origin. Like Call Me Amour before them they delivered a slick high energy support slot. There is something infinitely likeable about Lee Villain, who bravely ventured out into the crowd to play, much to the crowd’s delight. He did however discover it was further back to the stage than he’d anticipated! Well played, guys! Definitely a band to watch out for.

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As the crew worked to turn the stage around, the PA tape played. Black Wedding by In This Moment came on and the crowd, already hyped up by the support bands, sang along and cheered as the song ended! Love when this happens.

As the lights dimmed shortly before 9pm, the Glasgow chant of “Here we, here we, here we f**king go” echoed round the room. Glasgow was more than ready to welcome New Year’s Day to their hearts and the stage.

Gone is frontwoman Ash Costello’s red and black look, replaced for 2020 with a striking white blonde/black image. (You been hanging out with Maria Brink too long, Ash? Lol) It’s nigh on impossible not to fall for the charm of her chatty delivery. Mid way through their somewhat short headline set, Ash commented herself that she’s been told she talks too much. Don’t share a stage with Shinedown’s Brent Smith – no one would get a word in edgeways and it would be the shortest set ever! LOL

New Year’s Day opened their sixty-minute set with Come For Me from their current album Unbreakable. This was followed by Malevolence, one of my favourites, from their 2015 debut album of the same name.

There were two cover songs in the set. The first of these was F**king Hostile, the Pantera anthem. Definitely one of the highlights of the night. A few songs later it was a cover of Kehlani’s Gangsta that had the fans on side.

One thing that can be said for New Year’s Day is that they like things to be “smokin’” There was so much dry ice about that it was very hard at times to actually see the band on stage. Hint- cut it back a bit, please.

And my only other constructive observation of the evening is that for a headline set, this one was too short. I wholly appreciate that New Year’s Day only have two albums to pull material from plus the covers they do but the set would have benefited from being three or four songs longer in my humble opinion.

This was the third time I’d seen Ash and her boys. I’m pretty confident that it won’t be the last.

2020 is finally off and rocking!