Blue Rose Code

8th November 2024

Greenock Beacon Arts Centre

I have rather missed Blue Rose Code, I have to say.  I noted it had been 2021 since I had last seen the band, performing a short post-Covid outdoor set in an Edinburgh public park.  I had not really been much impressed at the time, but I would be the first to acknowledge such a setting is not where Blue Rose Code shine.

But this evening, in a close to full Greenock Beacon Arts Centre the musicians were at their best.

Support act Roseanne Reid had been compelled to pull out at the last minute, so what Ross and the lads presented us with, by way of recompense, was two sets; the first being the whole of the new album Bright Circumstance track by track.

I had found the band's 2020 release With Healings of the Deepest Kind, just a touch lightweight, particularly when comparing to the quality of the three albums which had preceded it.  

But, even on just a few listens before tonight's rendition, the new collection feels like a powerful return to form.  The soul-infused stomper Jericho opened tonight's show and set a high bar for what was to follow.  I particularly enjoyed Sadie (written for Ross's mum), Never Know Why and the set's tour de force Easy As We Go.  

The album is not perfect, however, and the rendition of Amazing Grace (which I hadn't enjoyed when I heard it performed in 2021) still did nothing for me.  And Ross's heart-beating fist-pumps during the beautiful Peace in Your Heart did come across as a touch contrived at times.

There is, however, no doubting the man's sincerity with his lament for a recently lost pal: Now The Big Man Has Gone On.  The wee wifie next to me was weeping away freely.

The second set housed a couple of new songs, both of which sounded like fine additions to the band's canon, I felt.

Ross had brought along a wee string section to help flesh out the sound, whom I felt were sadly underused throughout.  They only had a few parts during the evening, Ross even succeeding in pulling them on stage a song too early, with the result the trio had to sit inactive and slightly embarrassed through Amazing Grace (I think it was).  

Clearly Ross, viewed they guys as his own Caledonia Soul Orchestra, but I felt a slightly more judicious choice of second set songs, could have utilised their talents more fully.

Just a minor gripe through.  More an observation, I would say.

   

Set list

Jericho
Sadie
Never Know Why
Thirteen Years
Amazing Grace
Peace In Your Heart
Easy As We Go
Don't Be Afraid
MacDonald's Lament
Now The Big Man Has Gone On
                                                          Interval
Red Kites
Keeps me Lonely
Nashville Blue
Wild Atlantic Way
Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old)
Your Love (new song)
Ebb and Flow
(new song)
Love a Little
Grateful