ZAND released an EP in September – Sewerstar – and it was expected that we would hear all of those tracks in their set tonight. It was a very quiet room in the Garage tonight but soon to get louder with the line-up taking to the stage. Fresh back from the USA on tour ZAND had played Manchester on 21st and now the following night it was the chance to take on Garage in Glasgow.
We turned up nice and early in anticipation of seeing two support bands – ALT BLK ERA and fakeyourdeath – as was advertised on the tour poster only to discover that Lo Rays would be the support for tonight. However, we’re not complaining though as they were outstanding. The Glasgow based band are vocalist Laura Takala, Ryan Jones (bass), Scott Bathgate (guitar) and Jade McWilliams (drums) with the band forming in 2018. The set began with unreleased track Human, which was appreciated by the small crowd. Lo Rays released their first EP in September – Algorithm Gods – with four of those songs featuring on the setlist tonight: Algorithm Gods, Factory Settings, Die Beside You and No Democracy. Takala’s stage antics and dancing were very entertaining with the singer down in the crowd at one point. There aren’t many occasions that the support band play a better set than the main act, but tonight that was the case. Lo Rays will be supporting VUKOVI for their two nights at the Cathouse in Glasgow alongside Uninvited on 30th November and 1st December. That promises to be an excellent night of music. 8/10
The Garage Attic was very quiet tonight, with no more than sixty people present for their Sewerstar taking to the stage with the opening track from the EP; Descent, leading to ZAND making their appearance on stage around 9pm. At this point it has to be said that we were expecting a full band to be playing, but instead we had ZAND singing and her back-up was a female with a laptop bouncing around at the back of the stage, although very energetic and enthusiastic, it was a completely different musical experience from what we had seen from the support band earlier.
D.T.F. gets the crowd moving a little, a song laden with too many expletives to mention here! Boys Like U was ZAND’S debut song released in 2018, and this one definitely gets a good response from the fans, with ZAND owning the stage amid wild enthusiasm. After Spit On Your Grave ZAND runs around the stage with a baseball bat, perhaps a reference to the previous song’s lyrics. The set ended with Slut Money and Religion, lasting around forty minutes which was quite short for a main act, truth be told. The track Battery Acid, from the Sewerstar EP, was left out of the set, which was unfortunate as it is by far the most listenable song from the EP with ZAND’S vocals dominating the track. ZAND has a few more live dates in the UK and most likely some festival dates for 2024 in the pipeline, which may bring in more fans for the next visit to Glasgow. 5/10
Written By: Alan Brown
