If you’re in Glasgow for a couple of nights it’d be churlish not to pay a visit to one of the iconic music venues, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. Walking up the steps from the main bar your feet pass over the printed names of some of the big name acts who’ve graced it’s stage. From the Manic’s and Blur in ’91, it’s a veritable who’s who of Indie… Oasis, Pulp, Radiohead and erm.. Natalie Imbruglia.
King Tut’s even has its own lager, the whiff of which sent my nostrils spinning back a few days to the distilleries and wash backs of Islay & Oban. Mind you after 10 distilleries, and countless drams it doesn’t take much to trigger a whisky flashback.
Glasgow’s Pronto Mama topped a four band, all Scottish lineup, and by the time they took to the stage the place was rammed with half cut punters ready to jump around. The band arrive bedecked in slightly questionable hand printed t-shirts emblazoned with messages like “Check Me Out” and “Ego Friendly” as if they’d mistaken an EP launch for a stag-do. What they lacked in sartorial elegance they more than made up for in raucous fun, and an ability to simultaneously charm and rock the crowd.
Michael Griffin’s nominally the lead vocalist but Ciaran McEneny on keyboards has an equally fine voice, and thankfully neither bother to tone down their Glaswegian lilt. “Still Swimming” opens with a plaintive wail of what might be “I don’t want to fight anymore” but to my ears sounds like “I don’t want a shite anymore“. Thankfully the songs are as strong as the accents, with “Still Swimming” being the real standout and crowd pleaser. From its gentle piano intro, it swings from delicate declarations of love to crashing guitars, with a maddeningly catchy chorus to boot.
