Where: SEC Armadillo – Glasgow, Scotland (UK)
Venue rating: 10/10 (Much plainer inside than I remember but I refuse to rate it lower! One of my favourite venues. Still fantastic sound and they still serve my favourite beer)
Who I went with: My dad!
Where we stayed: Premier Inn Glasgow Pacific Quay (SECC) Hotel – Bit of a mouthful
How we travelled there: Bus from Inverness, then faffed about on various trains/buses around Glasgow (We saw St. Luke’s from a bus, which I’m visiting in October!)
Beverage of choice: Fosters beer! My dad had Strongbow (Dark Fruit). So many people were absolutely disgusted by the idea of drinking Fosters and settled for something (anything) else! Sometimes I feel like the only one who likes it
SETLIST:
- Rock Party
- Who Do You Love? (Bo Diddley cover)
- Shot Down (The Sonics cover)
- Night Time (The Strangeloves cover)
- I Drink Alone
- House Rent Blues / One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
- Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry cover)
- Gear Jammer
- Get A Haircut
- Bad To The Bone
- Tequila (The Champs cover)
- Move It On Over (Hank Williams cover)
- Born To Be Bad (Encore)
My dad has been a George Thorogood fan since the beginning, which was forty five years ago according to the tour poster. We decided to go to this event together because of this and my ludicrous quest to go to as many concerts as I can this year. When we looked this event up on Ticketmaster, almost all of the tickets had already sold because it was meant to take place in 2020 and then 2021 because of Covid. I got us seats at the back corner, near the entrance. Not satisfied with this, I kept checking until better seats became available. It is always worth doing that, as people usual cancel last minute and try to sell off their tickets. I got us seats in Row M, which was still quite far back but not as bad as before and very central. There were a few empty seats on the night closer to the stage but anything could have happened in those two years to prevent people from coming once the date rolled around. My dad made a morbid joke about fans maybe not even being alive anymore, since GT has been on the go for such a long time! I couldn’t help but laugh.
The opening act was Chris Andreucci. I keep mis-remembering his name and thinking it’s Andrew-something. I’m thankful I screen-shotted his name after he announced it and I looked him up on Google because it’s a difficult one to remember and doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. He does come up when you search “Scottish musician Tennessee”, as that is quite an unusual mix. We both enjoyed his performance but wouldn’t rush to listen to his music again. I was confused why they chose a Country act as an opener for a very rocky concert but I guess it was because he is fairly local, from Ayr originally. He happened to be visiting home that very weekend. It sounds like they picked him at the last minute, so I don’t know if they previously had someone else in mind. My dad thought he was more fitting for GT than I did because he could be seen as semi-Country but I don’t see it. My dad would know better than me. CA amusingly has an American twang when he speaks, like a true die-hard country musician. He talked about when he used to come to this venue to see artists when he was younger and he sympathises with everyone up in the top balconies because of all the stairs leading up to them. I was thinking “There’s stairs?” and remembered Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic running up them, still singing ‘Counting Stars’. He added he doesn’t know whether they are still there ten years later or if they installed escalators. I haven’t bought seats up in the balconies yet but maybe one day I will find out for sure.
This was the most guitar-heavy of the events I’d been to so far and it was definitely a proper rock gig. The Rolling Stones would be my other “rocky” one so far. GT didn’t let either of us down and he sounds just like he used to, from what I can tell. Most of the songs he did were covers and songs I didn’t already know but they all worked very well together. There weren’t many songs on the setlist but they were long and some seemed to be the length of at least two songs. My dad knew he would keep ‘One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer’ going as long as possible, to please the crowd. He paused after the opening of that one and said “Some of you have heard this story before!” People were demanding it by hollering “WHISKY!” at him. It doesn’t make sense, as surely they should have been shouting “Scotch”? I think it was that song which opened with him combing his hair, with his back to the crowd. Very theatrical!
Near the beginning, GT called The Armadillo “Scotland’s biggest rock venue” to garner enthusiasm. My dad told me about The Apollo, which was a world-famous Glasgow venue on Renfield Street which closed in 1985. I was sad to hear about it closing, even though I had never set foot in the venue and wasn’t even born then. I could tell there was something truly special about it. The Armadillo is still a good venue, just not super atmospheric with everyone sitting down. Glasgow has a lot of great venues, which is amazing. I hope to visit them all over the next few years. He said, as part of the act, “I’ll let you in on a secret… The Destroyers have been released from probation for this event only!” and “If anyone’s getting arrested tonight, it may as well be me!” He joked about how Scottish people like to drink a lot. Americans seem to believe that stereotype has some truth to it, for some reason? He explained how they didn’t know if ‘One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer’ was a great idea for a song but he knew one place where it would go down well… Scotland. I don’t know if he says that about every place he visits but it works well here.
He talked about when she started out in the sixties and then emphasised “nineteen sixties” for comedic effect. He said everyone needs an idol and joked his was Mick Richards or Keith Jagger, pretending to get Mick Jagger and Keith Richards mixed up. He claimed he has a lot to thank them for. Someone yelled “You’re my hero!” to suck up to him. GT wiped his brow with a face cloth and handed it to a lady in the front row saying “I saw Elvis do that in a movie once!” After the crowd laughed, he thanked her for letting him live out a rock and roll dream of his. It was obviously scripted but funny all the same. He was probably fed up with someone right near the front, yelling songs they wanted him to do every two minutes. He eventually replied “Don’t rush me! It took me forty years to get here, so enjoy every sweet moment of it!” The encore seemed abrupt but people started to slowly leave after the last song, when the band members exited the stage and the lighting returned to normal. We waited a minute or two because it didn’t seem like a proper conclusion. Usually the musicians come back out to thank everyone and make a speech about if they will be back again etc. He did come out and high five and fist bump several people at the front. I wondered for a second if we could go down to the stage but the security was strict about keeping the aisles clear. It looked like at least two people got thrown out earlier. The interactions were brief, so we probably wouldn’t have made it down there in time anyway. When he went to leave the stage he pretended to faint and revive himself. His collapsing looked authentic, which makes him a talented actor as well as a musician.
My dad asked how GT compares to everyone else I have seen so far but it’s too hard to order them all because I see is so different and they all bring their own thing to the table. I can say that I was blown away by the performance, especially by those obviously well-refined guitar skills. I haven’t been to a concert where the guitar has taken centre stage as much as this one, so that was exhilarating. The saxophone was very enjoyable too. I don’t usually pay too much notice to saxophones but it was impressive and more tuneful than I thought they could be. The whole band was solid. I don’t know if they will come back to Scotland of if it is true they hadn’t been here in forty years but I would be interested in going to see them again if they do announce another tour.
