Burns Night
King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
24/01/2010

Tonight is a celebration of Robert Burns. Not your normal Burns Night, mind, but it does have all the right ingredients.
First of all there’s the food – plates of ‘haggis, neeps and tatties’ are handed out to the audience as we arrive – and then there’s great music, provided by Broken Records: a seven-piece from Edinburgh. On arrival each member of the band unpack what seems to be an un-ending supply of instruments onto the small stage, which doesn’t leave much space for them, but they somehow manage to fit nonetheless.

Frontman Jamie Sutherland leads them through the set, swapping between guitars and a mandolin, and Broken Records are clearly enjoying themselves tonight; from knowing smiles and nods among each other to acknowledgements of previous times played in Glasgow. The crowd is pretty reserved initially for a King Tuts audience, perhaps because they’re all too busy tucking into their haggis (the smell wafts around the room for quite some time) but it doesn’t take long for the banter to start.

Sutherland calls for celebrations throughout the set, and the band perform a helping of tracks from 2009 album ‘Until The Earth Begins To Part’ and from the EP ‘Out On The Water’. This selection of songs allows the outfit to demonstrate their full repertoire; including everything from lilting ballads to country-tinged hoedowns. And there is a freshness in their playing that hints at further sonic explorations and developments to come.

Lastly comes the dancing; as a large proportion of the crowd leave straight after Broken Records with the remainder of us left to bop the night away.

Michael Gallacher