M Ward arrives onstage, an unassuming figure in a blue baseball cap, whipping up a storm on his open-tuned acoustic guitar. As he strums and snaps his way through this opening jam several roars of appreciation suggest that his Glasgow following have been waiting some time for this his first appearance Clyde-side.
Ward subsequently segues, via a wave of distortion, into a tender rendition of “I’ll Be Yr Bird” from last year’s Transistor Radio, showcasing his distinctive, choked and smokey, vocal delivery and oddly commanding stage presence. “Outta My Head” follows, working as a wistful, after-the-fact counterpart in this context.
Mind you, if you thought this was going to be one of those quiet (with moments of occasional noise) acoustic evenings, the arrival of Mr Ward’s touring band changes the picture somewhat drastically. Mike Coykendall and Jordan Hudson take turns on bass and rhythm guitar, filling out the sound, but the biggest impression is made by Rachel Blumberg on drums, who keeps ratcheting up the gears on an awesome, rabble rousing “Four Hours to Go”.
Ward seems energised by the presence of his bandmates and so almost two thirds of the remainder of tonight’s sets consists of up-tempo country and/or rock numbers: Newbie “Magic Trick” honky tonks along and features a cameo by Blumberg on mandolin; Ward instrumental stalwart “Regeneration” gets a punky 1-2-3-4 update; Daniel Johnston’s “To Go Home”, from forthcoming album “Post-War”, is a standout 2 note piano hook yearning chorus rolling thunder marvel.
There are a couple of soulful ballad moments as well of course, several of which inspire Ward’s loyal local following to engage in beery sing-a-longs, unlikely as that may sound. “Undertaker” has one particularly drunken and vocal fan pushing is way to the front to shake hands mid-song. “A Voice at the End of Line”, complete with “I’ll Be Your Mirror”-quoting intro, concludes to the shouts of several members of Ward’s surprisingly vociferous gay following offering to be the just that!
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You can tell he’s a bit bewildered by the enthusiastic (to say the least) reception but for the first forty or fifty minutes it does make for a wonderfully charged atmosphere. However by the time set-closer “Big Boat” rolls up two “fans”, suitably alcohol fuelled, have cleared a space down the front and seem intent on upstaging their idol with some Mick Jagger-esque dance moves, full pints wobbling dangerous atop their heads from time to time.
When the band arrive back onstage for an encore they steady the pace with a gentle “Fuel for Fire”, but a much requested “Vincent O’Brien” has the Jagger wannabes at it again, making for a somewhat strained atmosphere, and the ABC2 security, having taken a hard line on crowd photography earlier in the evening, seem less than inclined to deal with this much more obvious safety risk.
So a slightly unfortunate conclusion to what has otherwise been a triumphant first visit north of the border for M Ward – here’s hoping he won’t be deterred from making a return trip.
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