Gig review: Amy Macdonald, Caves, Edinburgh

“You’re number four out of five, Edinburgh,” declared Amy Macdonald as she strode onstage at 8pm, “we’re flagging a little bit, we’re going to need you guys to perk us up.”

Amy Macdonald

Caves, Edinburgh

***

As far as methods of launching your new album go, it’s time-efficient and certainly not lazy – cram a five-date tour of Scotland into a single day and play them all in aid of charity while you’re at it.

For her part, Bishopbriggs-born singer-songwriter Macdonald didn’t look ruined by the experience, her freshly-styled brown hair tumbling down onto a black T-shirt emblazoned across the chest with a big white skull. “You’re very complimentary in Edinburgh,” she laughed in response to one excited male admirer, “I’ve been up since six o’clock (in the morning), I’m surprised I still warrant a wolf whistle.” At the tender age of 24 she’s already an old-stager, and she reminisced about the launch of her debut album all of five years ago before a version of her first single Mr Rock and Roll.

By its very nature the show was short, sweet and stripped-back, with Macdonald performing only five songs alongside a bassist and percussionist. She hit all the right notes, though, selecting her latest single Slow It Down, mid-period single Love Love and new song Pride (about the experience of singing for the crowd at Hampden), all of which allowed her folk-tinged voice to be heard at its most delicate and expressive. Momentum was just building by the end, as the crowd staged a hearty clapalong to her biggest hit This is the Life, but that was it - even as the fans called in vain for an encore, the road to Glasgow awaited.