Juanita Stein (+ Raff and Kirsten Adamson) – Nice N’ Sleazy 18/3/2025

It was quite the ‘chill’ affair last night for a ‘school night’ gig. After seeing Juanita support Travis at the Hydro at the end of last year, both Michelle and I were keen to see her in her own right.

I headed into the city in the late afternoon. I do try and save costs as and where I can these days. In the past I would have arrived at Queen Street and then taken the subway to St George’s Cross and got to the top end of Sauchiehall Street that way. Why I would do it that way now bemuses me because it is cheaper and just as quick to arrive at Queen Street and head to the lower level platforms and grab a connecting train to Charing Cross. It adds only an extra 5p to a return fare to Ashfield, as opposed to spending £3.20 on a return subway trip from Buchanan to St George’s Cross. Why have I been doing this?! I’m mentioning this for when I arrived at Charing Cross station, on exiting I took a left onto Elmbank Crescent, then a left onto Elmbank Street which leads you to Sauchiehall Street right where the Beresford art deco building stands. Just a little down from that is a Genting Casino in the building that was once the Locarno, which then became Tiffany’s. As I turned the corner from Elmbank Street and looked down Sauciehall Street towards the building in question I felt myself fill with this sense of wishful thinking and desire for a past I never had the fortune to experience. I felt a rush of what it would have been like rounding that corner as if it was 1982 and I was heading to Tiffany’s to see Simple Minds. Jim Kerr at his absolute luscious-lipped and snake-hipped pinnacle. That pang of nostalgia almost floored me. Alas, it was elsewhere I was headed to – and very much in the present.

I feel a bit sad that it had taken me this long to finally get the chance of catching a gig at Nice N’ Sleazy. I won’t lie – part of it was due to thinking that maybe the venue was, given its name, a bit …. shady? Also, there really hadn’t been anyone of late playing there that I wanted to see … or if I did want to see them, I was a little worried about the crowd they’d attract. (The band One Nine Eight springs to mind for that one – I wonder how those guys are getting on these days?)

Before all that though, we required sustenance, so a long overdue meal at Non Viet was called for. I had my dream dish (as a vegetarian that very occasionally lapses to having a meat dish) – I had the slow cooked caramelised pork belly with egg served with jasmine rice on the side. There is a vegetarian option for this dish with mushrooms and tofu (which I have had previously and is delicious) – but OMG! The pork belly – THE PORK BELLY! Pork belly is an Achilles heel to my continued staunch vegetarianism – particularly when it comes to dining out at South-East Asian restaurants. It really is the only time I will buckle. This was all I had. Just the pork belly and the jasmine rice – it is such a filling dish – and just divine!

We headed over to Nice N’ Sleazy just before 7.30pm. I was keen to catch the support act, erm… ACTS, as it turned out. I knew that Kirsten Adamson was performing and in the back of my mind I thought I’d seen information about the gig of there being two support acts, but subsequent posts on social media for the gig had only mentioned Kirsten and no one else, so I had assumed I somehow got this info wrong. Alas, there were TWO support acts. Doors opened at 7pm and I was fearing we would be arriving late but when we arrived there was hardly a soul there. There’s lush bench seating either side of the wee floor. We took a seat to the left side of the stage nearing the front. A relaxed atmosphere ensued.

The first support was a Glaswegian singer/songwriter named Raff. She was accompanied by a keyboard player and acoustic guitarist/backing vocalist. I enjoyed her set. At times, her songs had a darkness and melancholy to them. Other times, there was a mild whimsical nature to the way she presented them. She can drift into a bit of cursive singing at times – which personally, that style of singing can grate on me – I’m not a fan of it – but Raff used it rather sparingly and in a way that didn’t get my hackles up. She has a lovely ‘timbre’ to her voice. Here’s a wee blurb about her – and you can follow her on Instagram; her handle is raffmakesmusic.

A wee break between sets then it was the turn of Kirsten Adamson. She was accompanied by Jon Mackenzie (electric guitar) who I was convinced must have been her brother as he has an uncanny resemblance to her father – well, more a visual blend of him and Gary Moore. She has quite a unique voice and it’s very different from her talking voice. She’s fabulous! I can’t claim that Americana/Roots/Folk and/or Country music is my thing but Kirsten really won me over last night. She said that she’s touring in September – with a new album titled Dreamviewer. She performed new material last night, including her current single ‘Slow This Thing Down’ and previous single ‘Paint with the Colours’ which was released in November 2024. She did talk about her father and about connecting to his music by playing it and releasing cover recordings online during Covid lockdown – and then releasing a track at the beginning of 2023 titled ‘My Father’s Songs.’ She said she was 16 when Stuart passed away and will be 40 this year. So much time has passed…

I think I may just go and see her in September. You can check her out at kirstenadamson.com

By this time the clock was creeping towards 9.30pm – for a Tuesday night, it was going to be a late one! As Juanita arrived on stage, the small crowd moved their way to the front now totally obscuring what had hitherto been a clear sight from our side-view bench seats. I decided to remain seated as I didn’t feel that standing up would have given me any better view. As a result I have no photos or videos of Juanita’s performance, but trust me, she was stellar! She performed several tracks from her most recent album, The Weightless Hour, as well as a couple of tracks from her former band, The Howling Bells. The sound was absolutely fantastic. Who need visuals when the audio was sounding this good?! Was I pissed off that I couldn’t see her perform? Truth be told, yeah, I was a little vexed, but just how fabulous the performance was soundwise made up for that. I will definitely be seeing her again. In fact, if my financial situation was better, I’d turn right round and go and see her in Edinburgh tonight at Sneaky Pete’s. It seems quite the rarity these days that a musical act will perform in both Glasgow and Edinburgh – it’s usually one or the other these days and very rarely both. I think the only time I’ve done a two-night Glasgow then Edinburgh set of gigs was for – not surprisingly to ANYONE – Hamish Hawk last year. I can’t think of a time before then. Even with Simple Minds presently, it’s either one city or the other and rarely both. I think the last time was probably… I guess technically you could say it happened in 2022 – but April’s Hydro show was some months earlier than the two Princes Street Gardens shows in August…different shows, indoor vs outdoor and not really a night-after-night affair. I’m sure it’s been some years since even they did back-to-back shows in the two cities like that.

Anyway, I digress!

Minus the lack of vision with Juanita’s set, it was a fabulous night out. I really enjoyed Nice N’ Sleazy as a venue – they do like their dry ice fog. And I even made it back home before 11.30pm! Always a bonus.