Alisa Wylie

I can’t remember exactly what day it was, but it has been a decade since my father received his terminal cancer diagnosis. He phoned me to say he had been to the doctor, who told him his calcium levels were high. I didn’t know the significance of this at the time, but it meant that he had multiple myeloma, a rare blood and bone cancer that I had never heard of before. Right up until he was diagnosed, he had been a warehouse worker at the Beam Suntory distillery in the east end of Glasgow.

Hailing from Philadelphia, Greg Mendez is making not just his Glasgow debut tonight, but his Scottish debut. Quietly unassuming, Mendez takes to the stage and sits on one of two chairs set out. He begins his set solo, opening with Donut Shop, a heartbreaking track where he sings the words ‘I’ll take care of you / Until you don’t want me to’.

It’s been noted previously that the music of Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, could be described as being rooted in ‘ethereality,’ as well as of this Earth. The song that opens tonight's show, Abigail – an ode to a character in Stardew Valley – helps feeds into the outside-of-this-realm ideology from the get-go, while songs like circle the drain (notably Soccer Mommy's second most-streamed Spotify song) feature the addition of bubble sound effects for an underwater feel.