LIVE REVIEW: Lucia And The Best Boys, Theo Bleak, Lacuna, SWG3, Glasgow 23/11/2023
TRNSMT 2023 is still relatively fresh in the mind watching Lucia & The Best Boys play a storming set on the King Tuts stage and here they are playing SWG3 for a headline gig a few months later. Their debut album Burning Castles was released on 29th September and the band promised to play songs from that as well as some of their older tracks. We hadn’t heard much about the first support act Lacuna before tonight but by the end of their half hour set we can’t wait to see them again. Who would have guessed a song about a robin would steal the show? Lacuna are made up of six band members and they created good vibes on stage as they worked through their set with smiles on all their faces. Robin and Viking Funeral were stand out tracks with slow starts leading to a crescendo where all six musicians on stage were flowing perfectly together. 9/10
Theo Bleak has been slowly building a reputation for their live shows, with tonight being the first time we have saw them with a full band, having previously saw them supporting Noel Gallagher in Dundee last year. Releasing their Pain EP at the end of October, we would get to hear some tracks from that including I Look Like A Fool To You; their most streamed track to date. Theo Bleak lacked the stage presence of Lacuna but this was still an enjoyable set. 7/10
With the fans excited to hear the tracks from Burning Castles, the band wasted no time as they began the set with four tracks from the release, with Butterflies kicking things off. Following this was When You Dress Up, which was one of the highlights of the set, with vocalist Lucia Fairfull enthusiastically battering a drum at the front of the stage to the delight of the crowd, adding to the atmosphere. The SWG3 room was almost at full capacity, with maybe around 900 fans cramming in to see the Glasgow rockers. During Somewhere In Heaven, Fairfull told the story of how the song was recorded in the USA in collaboration with someone that owned a house built by two gay Scottish women in the 1920’s with Robert Burns poetry in the garden! The crowd responded to this with a resounding yeeeah, in delight at this behind the track story.
The title track from the album Burning Castles was played flawlessly followed by the very emotional Hurt Somebody You Love where the vocalist pours her heart out about a previous relationship with the crowd watching on in stunned silence as she sang “Fuck my feeling’s you don’t care/I’m just a girl, just another person for you to pretend/you’re in control of everything”. This one was an incredibly emotional moment for the crowd as we all connected to perhaps having similar times in our lives. Perfectly Untrue was a crowd pleaser as everyone got their dancing shoes on and had a boogie and singalong. The set had a franetic finish with crowd favourites Summertime and Care with the crowd having one last chance to show their appreciation towards the band. Fifteen tracks and just over an hour on stage was an excellent set. Lucia & The Best Boys play their final gig of the year at Lafayette in London on 8th December as part of the Communion Xmas Party with acts such as Maisie Peters and James Bay also performing. 10/10
WRITTEN BY: Alan Brown
