Gig review: Fence Secret Xmas Party, CCA

ONE OF the Santas manning the door looked wistful and a little drunk, screwing his eyes shut and swigging deeply from a beer as King Creosote serenaded him and a hall full of others.

Welcome to the Fence Secret Xmas Party, a gathering so hush-hush that every regular West Coast patron of the label’s Homegame festival appeared to have found their way there.

As one of the most deserving Scottish success stories of this year in music, Kenny Anderson’s decision to go on first at this seasonal bash was a magnanimous one, although his influence reverberated throughout.

The second set of three came from Edinburgh and Cellardyke’s Kid Canaveral, whose warm-hearted and dynamic indie-pop has become a fixture of the Fence sound this year. They played the heart-wrenching anthem And Another Thing!, the woozy shanty You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night and the dynamic post-punk of Couldn’t Dance, then welcomed Anderson to join them in what was fortunately more than just an excuse to introduce themselves as KC Squared.

Among the supergroup’s short set was a new track called No Way Santa Exists, quickly responded to by Johnny “Pictish Trail” Lynch during his headline set with a song called Of Course Santa Exists.

There was also a brand new song written “in a caravan on Eigg during Hurricane Bawbag” and a semi-jokey cover of Little Donkey from Lynch, a seasonal treat to match Scrooged repeating on the screen in the background. “It’s a tribute to Groundhog Day,” pointed out Lynch reasonably. Santa marshalled his concentration for the ending.

Rating: ****