Beans On Toast – Stereo, Glasgow (gig review)

I’ve been going to see Beans on Toast perform at Stereo for the better part of a decade at this point – and something about it does feel timeless. Right down to the music playing in the venue as we walk in – it’s all New Orleans style big band jazz. It’s old timey, super upbeat, and radiating the kind of positivity these shows are known for.

He makes his way through the crowd toward the stage, gladly accepting the greetings of his fans as he goes. The same bare-footed, flower in the cap, hippie folk singer, though his grin is now accompanied by salt and pepper stubble.

He keeps the introductions short, insisting that ‘there’s a lot of songs we want to play, and a lot of songs you want to hear’. The crowd sings along – even joining in on the new songs from Beans on Toast’s latest album Kill Them with Kindness. Which is impressive for a musician whose career has spanned 18 albums. People aren’t just here for the ‘hits’, Beans On Toast has undoubtedly created a small but passionate collection of fans everywhere he goes.

We’re treated to the classics of the Beans on Toast gig – a simplistic but sincere political rant culminating in ‘maybe pedos shouldn’t run the world’, a string of heartwarming tall tales of varying amounts of tall, and a honky-tonkified rendition of ‘Sunny Sunny Scotland’ – a must for any Scottish date for the band.

It was a joyful room – a celebration of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. As always, we hope to see Beans on Toast back in Sunny Sunny Scotland soon.

Beans On Toast