Thursday 20/01/05 I Am Kloot, The Frames @ The Arches, Glasgow

I Am Kloot is essentially John Harold Arnold Bramwell (you can see why he went for a snappier name), and his music is pleasant enough. There are traces of David Gray (without the disturbing head wobble) in his songs and a little bit of Liam Gallagher in his voice on occasion. The overall result is just a set of inoffensive tunes and the (largely seated) audience listen relatively impassively without being roused to do anything more energetic than nod along. Inexplicably, the gig is a seated one, and for a great deal of the evening most of the audience is in the chairs, and the standing listeners keep a respectful distance from the stage.

The Frames come onstage to rapturous applause and begin their set. Initially singer Glen Hansard seems shy and mumbles incoherently into the microphone between songs, but suddenly things pick up. Glen brightens and tells us the story behind fourth song, ‘Lay Me Down’ (from the album 'For the Birds') and it transpires that he is both charismatic and highly amusing. The song is rousing and beautiful with incredibly haunting violin playing from the hugely talented Colm Mac Con Iomaire, who has the added advantage of looking haunted to the point of being nearly dead. It's received with massive enthusiasm and from here on in the audience is held spellbound. The feeling is like one of watching a film (one drunk guy talking is even told to be quiet), but one which the audience is a part of.