Toronto born singer/songwriter LØLØ and her entourage rolled into Glasgow for the only Scottish date of the U Tour Me On tour, a take on the band’s biggest song to date U Turn Me On (But u Give Me Depression). The tour was showcasing the debut album from LØLØ that was released in June of this year, falling for robots & wishing I was one from which we would get to hear twelve tracks. LØLØ is Lauren Mandel and like a lot of young modern musicians began by making TikTok videos, her most notable a cover of Bruce Springsteen track Dancing In The Dark but sadly we would not get to hear that one live tonight.
First up at The Classic Grand was American singer/songwriter GUS, we arrived in perfect time to watch this talented young man play a half hour set filled with pop and rock songs. GUS definitely had the fan club in tonight with fans down the front screaming and singing every word back to the stage helping to energise the room for the main act. GUS released an EP Taller Than The Trees in March and we would get to hear a few tracks from that as well as his two biggest songs to date Miss You and Dancing Alone, both tracks were standouts in the set. 7/10
LØLØ’s music can be pigeon-holed into the pop-punk category but we would consider their music more wide ranging covering the bases from pop to punk but also everything in between. This was the second night of the UK tour that began at The Key Club in Leeds the previous night, we were sure the Glasgow crowd would put her at ease straight away on this Wednesday night. There were around two hundred in the venue for LØLØ taking to the stage around 8.30pm, she has a “I’d love to be back in Scotland” vest on tonight … welcome back! Following the intro from the album the crowd let out a cheer when omg is the first track of the night, the singer-songwriter seemed quite nervous as the set starts, commenting how close the crowd are to the stage. By the time THE FLOOR IS LAVA! is played she has the crowd onside and singing along, LØLØ shows her serious side explaining what this track means to her and is not afraid to talk about mental health. Debbie downer has the crowd singing and dancing along and is one of the highlights of the set and a volunteer is asked to come up on to the stage to duet with LØLØ while Gloria is written about “a two timing arsehole”, u & the tin man is yet another track about a broken relationship, is LØLØ trying to tell us something?
Junkie is next up, a high intensity track, the close connection between the vocalist and guitarist is special tonight while she gets the guitar out for their biggest track U Turn Me On (but u give me depression), this is definitely THE highlight of the set, it’s a song with over 23 million streams on Spotify alone! The crowd responded well to Faceplant, a song written around a fall that LØLØ had in 2023 that saw her face quite badly damaged and left the singer unable to open her mouth. I Would Fix You If I Could is a heart-warming moment for the crowd as she comes down to console one of the fans as it’s maybe a bit much for them. “Ok Glasgow it’s time to be a bad bitch again,” comments the singer as they play new track DON’T, the non-album track is great to hear live having only been released the previous week. Poser is one of the standouts from the album as LØLØ sings the opening lines “You never loved me you fucking poser/Bullshit lingers like the smoke on your breath,” to the delight of the crowd. There is one cover tonight but it’s not the one we all expected ie. Bruce Springsteen, instead it’s Liability by LORDE as most of the crowd join in with this one creating a special moment. Boohoo is the last track of the main set but those that were chanting one more tune got more than they wished for as it was actually two that ended the set starting with *Snow In Berlin* as LØLØ changed into a I Love Scotland t-shirt, this is a slower number. However the last one definitely isn’t, as Hot Girls In Hell ends an exhaustive twenty-one track set, the crowd find the energy to go wild one last time ending the night on a high. We hope to see LØLØ play a bigger venue next tour, as they say in Scotland “Haste Ye Back”.
After the UK leg of the tour wrapped up in Birmingham on 27th October LØLØ headed off to Europe for five more live shows before embarking on a longer tour back home in Canada with no less than seventeen shows planned … and tops that off next March with a USA tour. Proving that she is a girl in demand the German festival Rock am Ring has confirmed LØLØ for next year. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
