On a bright early Spring Thursday evening, the Boy Child and I boarded the 17:56 train to Glasgow. The evening’s venue was withing spitting distance of Glasgow’s Central Station hence the later start.

So, where were we off to?

We were heading to The Cathouse to see a co-headline show with Blacktop Mojo and Shaman’s Harvest. Both band’s hail from across the pond and this is their first visit to the UK.

There was already a reasonable queue when we arrived making a rail spot for the evening unlikely. C’est la vie.

Having climbed the venue’s iconic staircase, we made into the main room without needing oxygen. As predicted a rail spot wasn’t to be but Boy Child found us a spot over to the left one row off the rail, while I made my obligatory visit to the merch stall.

Now, here’s the confession… this gig was a bit of a punt for us. We’d both only heard a few tracks from each band beforehand, but it had been enough to tempt us into buying tickets.

Being a co-headline show and a venue with an early curfew, there was no support band for the night.

At 7.30 Blacktop Mojo stepped out on stage and received a rowdy welcome for their first visit to Glasgow.

For those of you going Blacktop who? Blacktop Mojo are a five-piece hard rock/Southern rock band who hail from Palestine, Texas. Front man Matt James commented that Glasgow was the furthest from home that any of them had ever been. Blacktop Mojo are a tight outfit, and their onstage chemistry is palpable.

As I mentioned I’m not 100% familiar with all of their material. To date they have released five albums, so they had plenty of options to pick from for their hour-long set.

It’ll come as no surprise that the set highlights for me were the songs I knew.

Another show highpoint was bassist Matt “Catt” Murtis’ blue snakeskin boots. They were awesome! He seems to be quite the character on stage too.

Where the Wind Blows from their 2017 album Burn the Ships was a definite high point. Love that song.

Two thirds of the way through the set, Matt James welcomed Shaman’s Harvest’s front man Nathan Hunt, out to join them for their recent collaboration Rise. Another great song and it gave us our first glimpse of Nathan Hunt. The Glasgow crowd clearly loved this one.

Set closer was the beautiful bluesy It Won’t Last. It was great to see the guys switching roles/instruments about for this one. Front man Matt James took over on bass, while bass player Matt “Catt” Murtis joined Malcolm Booher and Ryan Kiefer on guitar. Such a soulful song to end on.

An hour simply wasn’t long enough.

Shortly before 9pm Shaman’s Harvest stepped out on stage to cheers amid the drummer’s Native American rhythms for Red Hands Black Deeds (prelude), the opening song of their allotted hour. A great atmospheric start.

Hailing from Jefferson City, Missouri, Shaman’s Harvest are a five-piece outfit fronted my Nathan Hunt. Same as with Blacktop Mojo, I’m not overly familiar with the band’s music but I had loved what I had heard and was looking forward to their set.

Right from the off, the band’s sound was just a bit off. It may have been partly due to where we were positioned but drummer Adam Zemanek was largely drowning out Nathan Hunt’s vocals., which was a dreadful pity. Even the vocal harmonies seemed off balance a tad.

Two songs in the set stood out for me. The first of those was Lilith from their 2022 album Rebelator with its stunning sultry opening lines “Tell me your dirty little secret. Tell me what you want to be.” Awesome song.

The other one was the energetic and playful Country as Fuck from 2014’s Smokin’ Hearts & Broken Guns album. Simply a fan pleasing, good fun, anthem.

Shaman’s Harvest treated the Scottish crowd to a solid set that may have fallen a few minutes short of their allotted hour ensuring that the show ended well inside the 10pm curfew.

Was their set as well-received as Blacktop Mojo’s? I feel the answer on this occasion has to be no but both bands did earn a rousing chorus of the Glasgow chant.

Personally, I’m not really a fan of co-headline shows but did I enjoy the gig? – Most definitely! Would I like to see a headline show by each band? Yes!

Hope to see both bands back in Glasgow again soon.