Gig review: Alejandro Escovedo & The Sensitive Boys, Stereo, Glasgow

APRES le deluge of the day before, the steamy heat below stairs at Stereo was reminding San Antonio-born, Austin-based Alejandro Escovedo unexpectedly of home.

“Feels like Texas in here,” he observed approvingly, also evidently appreciating the crowd’s warm welcome back, after his much lauded performance at last year’s Glasgow Americana Festival - even going so far as to dedicate San Antonio Rain, about returning home after decades away, to the dear green place.

At 61, Escovedo has evolved through a broad stylistic spectrum since his beginnings in 1970s punk, including renegade country, garage rock and themed conceptual song cycles, gradually arriving at his own distinctive hybrid. Songs here ranged from the Clash/Buzzcocks echoes of opening numbers Sally Was a Cop – from new album Big Station – and Tender Heart, to the classic country-rock underpinning of Bottom of the World, weighed against lyrics evoking the bewilderment of lost psychological bearings. More meditative moments included Sister Lost Soul, about the casualties among his one-time punk peers, and the aptly soft-hued, brooding Sensitive Boys – also the name of his muscularly tight, pugnacious and versatile three-piece band, comprising guitarist Billy White, bassist Bobby Daniel and drummer Chris Searles.

Escovedo’s rough-edged yet expressive vocals and shrewdly crafted lyrics – by turns heart-on-sleeve direct and economically illustrative – provided the unifying element in the set’s confident sprawl of genres, enhanced by his stagecraft and age-belying gusto.

Rating: ****