Hamish Hawk ‘A Firmer Hand’ @ The Usher Hall, Review

Redolent

Tonight they played a cracking set as special guests of Hamish Hawk (more on that later) lead singer very Damon Albarn-esque in movements and mannerisms which is no bad thing the rest of the band very accomplished musicians.

They won Scottish Album of the Year for the brilliantly titled “Dinny Greet” (for those outside Scotland it translated to “don’t cry”) The band wouldn’t look out of place supporting someone like The Human League or New Order such as I find their sound in a similar and brilliant way.

I’ll need to get to a full gig of theirs to get the full Redolent experience and judging by what I just witnessed it would be a great thing.

Withered Hand

Withered Hand played the Usher Hall tonight the singer commenting “we played here in 2014, they say you play here twice.. once on your way up”… then he tailed off as the crowd burst into laughter but on a serious note I’d like to think they’d get a third slot here, a very good professional set to a packed audience it has to be said because let’s face it most venues don’t fill up until the main act is due on stage.

What you may or may not know is Withered Hand is actually one person (Dan Wilson) but he and his band got a good reaction for their set tonight and it was well deserved, songs like Horseshoe, King of Hollywood and Black Tambourine were played to an appreciative audience.

Well worth seeing live.

Hamish Hawk

I first encountered Hamish Hawk when they were guests of Simple Minds in Princes’ Street Gardens August 2022, I recall being completely transfixed by the singer he seemed to be channelling the spirit of Joy Divisions Ian Curtis such was the intensity and moves around the stage and saying to my friends Gez and Scott how brilliant the set was.

Fast forward a couple of years and the album A Firmer Hand a piece of absolute brilliance so much so it was awarded album of the year by BBC6 Music no mean feat there I can assure you, an album which does a very rare thing for me I can listen from start to finish without skipping a track a very rare thing indeed.

Hamish Hawk took to the stage to a packed Usher Hall for a hometown gig and I do believe he was genuinely taken aback at the welcome he and the band received the place erupted as Hamish took it all in with what can only be described is an emotional moment.

We were then treated to 90 minutes of sheer brilliance starting off with the opening track Juliet as Epitaph from the aforementioned A Firmer Hand the audience were in from the word go and believe me it showed, songs such as Disingenuous, Men Like Wire and personal favourite Machiavelli’s Room it was a brilliant gig.

A moment needs to be taken here to acknowledge the audience impeccable behaviour, not much of getting up every ten minutes to get a drink and during the slow but brilliant Catherine Opens A Window everyone kept quiet no whooping, no shouting out just 3,000+ people all becoming one to listen to a beautiful song, also have to mention Hamish talking about his time of working at the Usher Hall and saying “be kind to the Ushers and the Security” a nice touch as well as a shout to the smaller independent venues in Edinburgh where he plied his trade and a name check to Sneaky Petes got a rousing bout of applause.

Hamish seemed genuinely gobsmacked at the audiences reaction and he very humbly took the cheers and applause and I should think so too as ever single bit was well deserved, an absolute outstanding gig by an outstanding artist.

But then again any singer who has a song called The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973 is well worth checking out.

I’ll see Hamish Hawk again when they are special guests of Simple Minds at Bellahouston Park later this year, but I’d love Hamish to get to a point where he headlines somewhere like the OVO Hydro I’d be right up front for that one so fingers crossed.

Photo Credit: Michaela Simpson