25 October, 2024: Roddy Woomble at The Venue in Dumfries review

Something was wrong. Was it the relative rarity of a prominent gig locally, let alone seeing actual Roddy Woomble live in Dumfries? No, it was more fundamental than that. It was the disconcerting way that he stepped right up to the microphone. The one in the centre of the stage, right under the spotlight.

I don’t know about him, but I wasn’t entirely comfortable with this. After a decade of hard-earned experience on WoombleWatch, I had already instinctively assessed the shadows and adjusted the camera for low light. I’d planned for everything, except this uncharacteristic extroversion.

Relief. It was only to collect the microphone, then familiar rituals emerged in an unfamiliar place. Woomble stepped back and turned away from the spotlight to primarily sing towards guitarist Sorren Maclean. Fitting, perhaps, as Maclean faithfully underpinned the trio’s entire performance with his fretwork plus stompbox percussion.

Fiddle player Hannah Fisher also locked into Maclean’s eyeline, flashing knowing looks about occasional electronic frazzles. Professional stoicism has its limits, however. After one too many pops, she had to call it: “my wedge is fucked.” That’s the technical term, dear reader!

The trio were completely attuned to each other’s playing, sharing smiles in appreciation of each other’s work. As per time-honoured tradition, Woomble took every opportunity to retreat into the corner to observe his talented bandmates.

Six songs from Woomble’s brand new album Sometime During The Night We Fell Off The Map made the set. Old Negatives fared particularly well in this quiet place with space for Fisher’s sweet hummed harmony and fiddle playing.

Conversely, Theoriser benefitted from intentionally discordant violin and guitar building to an oxymoron – a beautiful cacophony.

Woomble mused about whether he’d played in Dumfries before, peering through the dry ice and blinding spotlight as a disembodied voice reeled off all the regional shows he’d attended. Woomble was amused by the precision: “What about Wickerman [Festival], how many miles?…So, we’ve always played about 7 to 15 miles away.”

Unfortunately, Dumfries is not likely to become a live music capital anytime soon. Locals hadn’t responded to the opportunity to sell out this show with world-class performers. The ones that had arrived treated the dancefloor like it was made of lava.

To be fair to the crowd, the venue offered a surfeit of appealing leaning spots, seats, and even several comfy sofas. As far as I’m concerned, every venue needs to install a front row settee with extremely handy side table for the photographers to use without delay. Woomble was especially amused by the preposterously high sofas raised on risers that must have needed a running jump or gymnastics to get onto.

When playing somewhere for the first time, it must be hard to gauge the crowd’s familiarity with the material. Eight albums and an EP in, the solo career is on solid ground (not made of lava). There was even positive reaction to mention of 2013’s Listen To Keep: “If anyone remembers that? Sometimes that’s met with total silence.”

Still, ‘Idlewild‘ is never too far from biographies and conversations. Live In A Hiding Place (enlivened by Fisher’s beautiful fiddle work) was certainly well recognised and went down well.

Which is why I was a bit puzzled to see people heading to the bathroom. Didn’t they just hear that? It was clearly the opening note of You Held The World In Your Arms. Don’t these songs live deep in everyone’s autonomic nervous systems? Strange.

It was difficult for them to sneak off surreptitiously anyway. With the bathroom being directly behind the stage, the sound of the electric hand dryers had a habit of interrupting the quiet moments. “I’m not suggesting you don’t dry your hands when you go to the bathroom, I just think it’s comically loud,” Woomble clarified.

When not competing with inconvenient convenience hardware, the new songs more than held their own. Several seem destined for a permanent place in the live set. Still, there’s always going to be a soft spot for the classics, like Waverley Steps from Woomble’s 2006 debut solo record.

Sadness, too. Not only because it’s not eternally paired with Take Me Back To The Islands – we must remember that it’s an Idlewild song, despite matching its solo brethren so well. No, mainly because it a stark reminder that hardly any bands get to have Hannah Fisher playing and singing on their best tracks. It seems so unfair.

Need more proof? You must be one of those people that doesn’t have these songs living deep inside. That must be hard. You might want to look into fixing that. Here you go.

There was no encore as such. “We won’t bother going off and coming on because it doesn’t seem appropriate,” Woomble declared. So, they played Floating On A River from The Deluder (2017) as a noncore, ending a short but sweet night of serene, melancholic, reflective songs.

True to the tenor of the evening, Woomble explained that “I didn’t set up a merchandise table because I didn’t find one.” Fans were welcomed to meet him at the side of the stage to buy a CD of the new album instead. It’s a very good new album. Sometime During The Night We Fell Off The Map is also available online on CD and yellow or clear vinyl. An accompanying limited edition journal is also available to buy, but be quick – there aren’t many copies left!

Haiver live at The Venue in Dumfries review

Whereas Woomble punctuated his quiet presence with moments of wit, Billy Kennedy used swearing for punctuation instead. He could have passed off his monologues about everything and anything as a confident desire to share, engage and entertain. For example: “I’m a bit Rod Stewarty. I’ve got a cold. It’s a come down from eating too much pizza.” However, he admitted it was the opposite: “I talk shite on stage…it’s a nervous thing…I love playing music, I just hate the in between.”

It’s not surprising he’d be nervous when faced with such unpredictability. Kennedy told a story about visiting Dumfries and Galloway when his “mate’s dad got a stupid fucking sports car.” It was so cold driving with the top down that he cried, and his friend’s mum had to join them on the lads holiday to drive them home again.

After that, every song and anecdote was met with a punter heckling about the mum. A brief mention of upcoming tour dates, that’s safe territory, right? “Is your pal’s mother going to be there?” came the quick reply. Eventually, Kennedy started introducing songs with a caveat: “It’s called Love To Hate. It’s not about my mate’s mum.”

It doesn’t feel like long at all since we learned at Frank Turner’s Lost Evenings that Scott Hutchison was gone (a year to the day that Hutchison had played the same festival himself). But it’s been a long, hard six years for those who knew him. Kennedy recalled “a hazy memory of having a curry with Scott” in Dumfries once, and fondly remembered how good he’d been to him. The throwaway comment was self-effacing, sounding like he’d supported Frightened Rabbit a few times.

The reality was much deeper. Kennedy was in Frightened Rabbit. He and Hutchison were schoolmates. Kennedy stepped away from music for a long time to come to terms with the grief, and to train to help others with their mental health. It was with this emotionally charged context that Haiver played a Frightened Rabbit song, Living In Colour, “early to get it over with.”

He handled it well. In fact, he could have got away with hiding all of his nerves it if it hadn’t been for that pesky honesty. But it was that honesty that fuelled his incisive songwriting. Kennedy tried brushing them off – “a fucking miserable song,” “another happy as fuck song” – but even he couldn’t hide the fact that he’s returned with a very promising set of achingly beautiful songs about love, addiction, and loss.

Kennedy and Brett McCann (Community Swimming Pool) were in lockstep posturally, vocally and on guitar.

The band was rounded out with gentle percussion played with a cloth cover and mallets for a softer vibe (plus some seriously special backing vocals making up the third part of the harmonies).

It’s hard to see what Kennedy was anxious about really. It’s not like he had the most reason to be nervous. This guy had to play in full view with proper lighting, and we all know that never happens to keyboard players. That took some guts (and a strong moustache).

Roddy Woomble’s short Scottish tour with Haiver continues until Halloween 2024.
Haiver will be playing a headline show at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow on March 15, 2025.

Roddy Woomble live in Dumfries – Setlist

1. Still So Far To Go
2. Break Up The Sun
3. Every Line Of A Long Moment
4. Live In A Hiding Place (Idlewild)
5. I Can Make Sense Of It Now
6. Old Negatives
7. Waverley Steps
8. Theoriser
9. The Universe Is On My Side
10. You Held The World In Your Arms (Idlewild)
11. Hour After Hour
12. Lo Soul
13. My Secret Is My Silence
14. Good Despite Everything
15. Floating On A River

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