Declan Welsh at Starbucks, Inverness, 18/6/2015. A review.
Starbucks on a Thursday always draws an intimate crowd who appreciate the acts on show. This evening saw the turn of Declan Welsh (who we caught up with prior to the gig) delight an audience especially the youngest member.
Declan was very careful in his selection of songs for his early evening shopping centre slot. With around 140 in his back catalogue to choose from he was very mindful of picking the non-sweary ones.
Declan knows how to charm a caffeine infused audience and his personable charm gets him off on the right foot. He is, on this set, a very commercial proposition. His vocal rolls like Kyle from The View yet has a downtown soulfulness akin to Paolo Nutini.
His songs play on his home locality but her ports them well to his Inverness surroundings. Within his songs is a maturity belying his age, this may in part be due to him looking younger than his post teen years.
It’s not all tales of Bearsden and beyond but he can throw in a protest song too; it only seems right for a young man with some attitude and guitar. His attitude is no doubt tempered to the surroundings but we still get a polished set of punky urban blues rounded off by a version of his forthcoming single ‘Alright’. In fact, that was more than just alright, a lot more.
This was Declan’s first stop off of the evening and he was to play later at Mad Hatters, no doubt with a set with an altogether different focus.
Catch up with Declan via his Facebook page, which includes news on his single release of ‘Alright‘.
