Camera Obscura at The Button Factory | Review

Camera Obscura in The Button Factor on May 26th 2014

Who is this Crybaby playing support to Glasgow’s Camera Obscura tonight? His name is Danny Coughlan, and his moniker and sound point more towards the soundtrack to teenage delinquency of John Waters’ film of the same name than it does to a certain make of wah-wah pedal.

Coughlan appears alone with an electric guitar and runs through a set that recalls those who have ruminated on the bittersweet side of love before him, from Morrissey through Billy Bragg and back further, to the more Spectoral side of things. Jacqueline is quite lovely, as is the doo-wop lilt and surfy tremolo of his entire set, an understated and winning endeavour even if punctuated by some mildly baffling patter.

There’s magic and music in the air in the Temple Bar vicinity tonight. “So Michael Bolton’s playing around the corner” Tracyanne Campbell informs us, “That’s well cool.” We’ve made our choice, though, and Glasgow’s Camera Obscura are our listening pleasure on this Monday evening in The Button Factory.

Tonight’s show, transplanted from its initial Vicar Street location, comes on the heels of a new four track EP culled from 2013’s ‘Desire Lines’ and released for Record Store Day. We get three of the ‘Session EP’s four tracks tonight. “This is like a workout for us…for me” Campbell informs us, and two nights into this short tour they are indeed busy up there onstage.

Soldiering pedal steel player Tim (“He’s got a sore back”) and his rear-of-stage colleague on trumpet frequently double job, picking up a tambourine, an extra guitar or lending a stick to Lee Thompson’s cymbals whenever the need arises. That wash of cymbal provides the backdrop to Country Mile as the high-pitched tones of pedal steel and bottleneck slide battle it out on top, and the fellas in the band stand in stoic contrast to the colourful, that-bit-more animated Carey Lander on keys beside them.

The momentum of the night all gathers rather nicely, with Crybaby’s retro foundation and Camera Obscura’s heart-rending melodies layered on top referencing country, soul and pitch-perfect pop. The infectious, pounding Honey In The Sun is the point where the set changes course, paving the way for the more raucous renderings of Do It Again and If Looks Could Kill, the latter thundering in with its tribal rolls and Van Morrison inflected soul.

Campbell eschews the guitar for French Navy, but whether she’s unadorned or switching between electric and acoustic, hers is the presence that unites the band onstage. It may seem like a somewhat workmanlike approach to the observer – no frills – but with music as melodically gorgeous as this, who cares? Razzle Dazzle Rose sees things out with a loose, mariachi style coda and slow trumpet flourish, and we can’t imagine the Bolton fans up the road were heading home with a multitude of melodies as perfect as these ringing in their ears.