A review of the Hit the Road Tour featuring False Impressionists, City in Surveillance, Cats in Capes and Steven Barclay at the Ironworks, Inverness on Thursday the 8th of March.
This was my first gig in The Ironworks this year and it was definitely a really good one to start off with! The ‘Hit The Road’ tour is run by the Scottish Music Centre and was created for young musicians and bands, from the age of 14-19, and gives them a chance to tour across venues in Scotland. On this part of the tour the bands who were playing were False Impressionists, Cats In Capes and Steven Barclay. Also joining them for the Inverness show was local band City In Surveillance.
False Impressionists started off the night, working through their own songs and finishing with a cover of Come Closer by Miles Kane which I really loved. The four piece band from Dunfermline have quite an indie/ rock based sound which I really liked. The band have been together for just over a year and a half but already have a tight set of music and a sound that reminded me of Kasabian and The Editors.
Next on was City In Surveillance playing a set of all of their own songs. I’ve seen the band play a couple of times before and really like their indie/ rock sound. Mikeyy Duncan, their guitarist, also sung one song during the set which sounded really good, even if the microphone was a little bit too low for him! City In Surveillance also formed just over a year and a half ago and since then have played many local gigs as well as their first festival at Belladrum and are also started playing more gigs out of the Highlands including a recent trip to Edinburgh
Next to play was Aberdeen band Cats in Capes. The energetic band played a mixture of their indie based songs ending with their song ‘Misfits’. Their sound really reminded me of Bwani Junction and Little Comets. I got to meet the band at the end which was…interesting! They ended up telling me lots of different things about the band, although none of it was about their music, such as none of them like seafood, their thoughts on Sophie Ellis Bextor, cats and that their skinny jeans are very stretchy!
Headlining this show on the tour was the Inverness based singer/songwriter Steven Barclay, who was accompanied by Tom Fullerton on the cajon. I really liked his music and self-written lyrics and loved his cover of Whatever by Oasis. He also plays in local indie/ rock band The Stellars. Steven also played at Belladrum last year. I would definitely recommend going to see him whether it’s on his own or with The Stellars.
I really enjoyed the Hit The Road gig and it was nice to see artists who are closer to my own age for a change. They also toured in Aberdeen and Dunfermline for this tour. All of the musicians cover a wide range of music and are definitely worth seeing.
You can read more from Iona at her blog, Gignmix.
Photos by Katie-Rose Wood, you can see more Hit the Road pictures.
You can read our recent interview with Steven Barclay.