I love seeing Carla Easton shows. You're guaranteed a full set of great tunes of uplifting pop melodies, lots of excellent chat from Carla between songs and always come away feeling your life has improved for having been to hear. This is the third time I've Carla play in Edinburgh in the past three months and a first for my gigging buddy for the evening Mike Mystery (creative guy-extraordinaire, who was also mighty impressed on his first hearing), and she gets better every time.
This was at the legendary Sneaky Pete's, one at the best music venues in Edinburgh, as one of the BBC Radio 6 Independent venue weeks shows, and it was packed out with more than a few familiar faces in the crowd from the Edinburgh gig scene which is always the sign of a great show to be expected. It's a small place and very quickly turns into a sweatbox when it gets close to its 100-people capacity which only adds to the unique atmosphere of the place.
Carla swung through a set of songs from her past couple of albums, Sugar Honey and Weirdo and a few others as well, but I think her easy-going conversational style intros in between songs might have cut into the setlist since the venue has a 10pm curfew. That’s not a complaint as her chat, as always was great; covering a wide range of topics from the citizens of Glasgow to her time spent in Edinburgh (including drinking in Sneaky Pete's as a customer), sharing guitarist Paul Kelly’s views on a track which sounded like “Tom Petty meets Cher”, and even gave us a very good Stephen pastel impression of him telling her CDs were making a comeback.
The advertised “CJE with full band” wasn't quite full as Gus the keyboard player called off late with Covid (thanks for not spreading it Gus, get well soon) but we weren’t short-changed because of that. Carla and the band make what they do seem effortless and it's very clear what her songs mean to her with how much she puts into her performances, as well as having the crowd join in with a few whoa-woah-woah’s for Attack of the Glam Soul Cheerleaders, which took the roof off as a finale.
Special shout-out to Carla's regular soundman, Richey D, who I got a quick chat with after the gig and plays a big role in keeping the show on the road and always a pleasure to speak to!
As if that wasn't enough musical entertainment for one night, a bunch of us went for post gig drinks and onto the always enjoyable Royal Oak pub for some late-night folk music, hosted by the excellent Bobby Nicholson, a stalwart of the Edinburgh folk scene. If you haven’t heard of him, check him out as well, regularly playing live round Edinburgh most weeks.
Carla never seems to stop playing, supporting other artists or creating great new music, so I'm sure there will be more gigs planned before long. Your life will be better for it with Carla J Easton’s music in it so go see her, and in the meantime check out and listen to all she’s recorded solo, with Teen Canteen, with Poster Paints, Ette and anything else she’s been involved in. You won’t regret it, its all Sugar, Honey!
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