Photo Credit: Maya Luana
Australian indie-rock quartet The Buoys are currently on tour around the UK and they dropped into Glasgow West End venue The Hug & Pint for the only Scottish show of the tour. They were promoting their debut album Lustre that was released in August last year, this is actually the first time The Buoys have played in Glasgow and the young Glaswegians showed their appreciation by turning up early for local support band Uninvited.
The Glaswegian quartet are slowly making their mark on the alternative music scene and have a reputation for their live shows, the set at the TRNSMT Festival in 2023 certainly went down well with the crowd. The basement venue on Great Western Road can hold up to one hundred and twenty and we reckon that it wasn’t far off that by the time they took to the stage at 8.15pm. Here is a band that have toured with Nova Twins, Crawlers and The Snuts so the music reaches far and wide. As this was the first Uninvited live show of the year the crowd are right up for it as vocalist Gillian Dhlakama declares, “people don’t stand still at Uninvited concerts!”. Looking over to the other side of the room it is the members of The Buoys band that are showing great enthusiasm, Gonna Get Better is the standout track from a half hour set filled with earlier releases. It also showcases the new Uninvited music with latest release All The Good Ways To Cope sounding great live. The new material was also good to hear, the names of a couple of the new ones being Snake Drama and James Dean, the latter song was played very well with some excellent guitar work. Uninvited tend not to play two of the early tracks that we like – Tom Boy and Diet Cigarette – but overall this was a great performance. 7/10
Over the past year we have had the opportunity to see more than a few Australian bands live: Amyl and the Sniffers, Royel Otis, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets being just a few examples. Another name can now be added in The Buoys who bring their own flavour of indie rock music tonight during an hour-long set. The Glasgow crowd are privileged to see Zoe Catterall and her band play the first date of tour in the UK that also includes dates in Manchester, Bristol and London before moving on to Europe. The Lustre Tour gets under way with I Want You before moving on to three tracks from the Lustre album namely Settle Petal, Check Mate and Guard My Heart. The crowd reaction is decent so far with head nodding being the order of the night, we had one of the best views in the basement as we stood on a bench throughout the performance.
Fight Back Time is a song where they collaborated with Norwegian indie-rock musician Sløtface, although not here tonight the track goes down well among the young crowd while I Think I’m In Love With You is dedicated to the Glasgow crowd, this is one of the standouts from the set. The intensity of the guitar work from Zoe Catterall and Hilary Geddes on Drive Me Home is memorable, they are definitely not holding back on this first night. Lets not forget there are also two other musician on stage with Courtney Cunningham on bass & backing vocals and Tess Wilkin on drums sports a tartan skirt for the night. BDSM was written about former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, yes it is political but still a great track to listen to. This is followed by Bad Habit where Hilary on guitar is once again a standout, The Buoys seem to have the ability to change up a song in a flash and most importantly all four band members are looking so relaxed and happy tonight .. the way it should be.
As we move towards the end of the show we get to hear Linda, a personal favourite and written about Zoe’s former boss. The lyrics tell a story: Everything you say has to be hurtful/and every order you bark makes me hate you all the more and/do you feel better making people’s lives a little harder?”. It makes you wonder if the Linda in question has ever listened to the song? The fifteen-track set ends with Subject A from the Lustre album, the crowd are shouting for more but sadly it truly is the end of what was a great night of music from a brilliant up and coming band. 9/10
Written by: Alan Brown
