The Dears at Hug & Pint, Glasgow: Montreal Indie Legends Deliver Knock Out Performance On Tiny Stage (Gig Review)

Last year The Dears marked 30 years as a band with their ninth studio album Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful!. The Montreal indie veterans have never hit the commercial heights of their contemporaries, but they have been lavished with regular critical acclaim.

Taking to the stage to Edith Piaf’s ‘La Vie En Rose’ frontman Murray Lightburn cuts the dapper figure, suited and booted as he soars into opener ‘Gotta Get My Head Right’. It’s a slow and soulful start to the night’s proceedings, with a mid-song gear change lifting the tempo with more pace and energy. It’s the type of song that defines The Dears as genre defying – no two songs sound the same with a blend of jazz, funk and rock ballads.

Tonight, the sold-out Glasgow crowd are treated to a well curated setlist of oldies, in amongst the more recent output. ‘Lost in the Plot’ from 2003’s No Cities Left is arguably the band’s biggest and most well-known track and is just as explosive live as it is on record. If you close your eyes, you can feel remnants of Damon Albarn, Brett Anderson and Morrissey in Lightburn’s vocals.

‘Onward and Downward’ then ‘Instant Nightmare!’ sees the lead vocals baton passed to keyboardist Natalia Yanchak, her dream-like vocals offering a more dialled down tone to her husbands (Yes Lightburn and Yanchak are married) however the intensity of the guitars never falters.

‘Tears of a Nation’ feels like it belongs in the 80s with post-punk guitar riffs and synth chords akin to Simple Minds and U2. It’s big and it’s bold and it has the Glasgow crowd bobbing along with joy.

For the encore, Lightburn performs a solo acoustic rendition of ‘Ticket to Immortality’ and you feel the full emotion in his voice as he cries “The world is really gonna love you”. Lightburn informs us that he and Yanchak’s daughter are on the merchandise stall and that we should feel free to ‘cut a deal with her’. An offer I was not going to refuse as I gleefully got some discounted vinyl.

Lightburn was rejoined by his band for the final part of the encore with old favourite ‘22: The Death of All the Romance’ bringing the curtain down on a thrilling set. It’s a thrilling crescendo of sound from the seven band members squeezed onto the small stage.

The Dears, Glasgow Hug & Pint, Saturday 21st February, 2026

Setlist:

Gotta Get My Head Right

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

5 Chords

The Worst in Us

Who Are You, Defenders of the Universe?

Lost in the Plot

Hate Then Love

Disclaimer

Here’s to the Death of All the Romance

Whites Only Party