Words: Lois Boyle (she/her)
To be completely honest, I’d never heard of Lo Moon before attending this concert. I had only listened to 1 of their songs by the time I stepped into the charming, cosy venue of St Luke’s. I couldn’t even begin to form an image of what to expect – what the crowd would be like, who would be on stage, what kind of music they would play. What I was ready for, however, was to feel slightly out of place among a sea of superfans: which in the end, couldn’t have been further from reality.
As music hummed in the background and the crowd slowly trickled in before the support, I approached 2 girls standing right at the barricade to ask what they knew about the band: ‘We actually have no idea who they are!’ one of them says, giggling with this revelation, ‘We just saw the tickets online and decided to give it a go.’ They’d travelled down from St Andrews to attend, having never visited Glasgow before. ‘It seems like we’re the youngest people here though by a bit… I wonder what it’ll be like.’ This was true – looking around, it seemed only to be middle aged men surrounding us.
The venue was still filling up as the opening act stepped on stage: a 4 piece band, fore-womaned by the effortless, bubbly Zoe Graham. Her cool, upbeat set was reminiscent of Boy Genius. Energising the crowd with songs of mothers, lovers, crushes, and the mundane everyday, her set was the perfect soundtrack as the room reached capacity.
Standing right next to the speakers at the very front was the way to experience the concert. While I did feel like a bit of a fraud for stealing a barricade spot for a band I didn’t know, I regretted it less and less as the music went on. Lo Moon dove straight into Borrowed Hills, a calming but upbeat number whose swells could be felt through the huge speakers as the music filled the room.
The band kept interactions to a minimum, yet the event still felt friendly and comfortable, with the focus being primarily on the music. Each song seemed to flow easily into the next, but still remained distinguishable. Lo Moon sticks to a very distinct style – “synth pop”, the bartender told me. I could only describe it as a fusion of The 1975 and Coldplay in peak 2014 brilliance. If I’m being totally transparent, whilst the atmosphere this sound created was enjoyable, at times it did feel more like background music. I was slightly distracted at points talking to the aforementioned bartender (again, one of the only people in the entire venue close to my age) about the other events they’d hosted this week.
With this, the evening slipped away. The intimacy of the venue and the chilled nature of the songs combined beautifully to create a perfectly relaxed environment, which the band themselves enhanced through their laid back approach to their performance; everyone seemed completely at ease on stage, wandering between instruments and positions for each number. Even with the room close to max capacity soon after the band took to the stage, it still felt strangely calm, allowing everyone in attendance to immerse themselves.
The band’s singer, Matt Lowell, said a quick thank you which felt more like a conversation with old friends than anything else.This isn’t the first time the group have visited Glasgow. In fact, Lo Moon have been touring fairly consistently since their formation in 2016. The band remained on stage to play their final song – Loveless, their 6-minute long debut single. This number was truly the show-stealing moment of the night: the strong crescendos of the music were electrifying, as everyone stood in contented silence soaking up the final moments of the concert.
I left feeling slightly less like an imposter, with a greater understanding shared with the people who surrounded me. One of the best points of the night was realising that very few people actually knew of Lo Moon, but didn’t enjoy the music any less because of it. While the music wasn’t exactly to my taste, there’s no denying that it was beautiful and that I had a great time listening. The lesson from this event? Go to concerts of bands you don’t know! Walk in with zero expectations, and have fun – I certainly did.
