There always seems to be some form of musical event happening in and around the city of Glasgow all year round. And whilst January is the month of Celtic Connections in Glasgow, up in Oran Mor in the west end of the city, there was the premier performance from the violinist Lindsey Stirling.
In support was The Vibrant Sound, who broke the ice with the sold out show audience with an acoustic rendition of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme, which had the audience singing along with him. With just a laptop and a guitar he sang original song Industrial Revolution, and a solo version of Gold Digga (a song he had covered with Lindsey on Youtube). Also performed was Flight & 79 as well as new release Gravity (Gotta Fly). It's not long until the main act takes the stage.
From the moment that her two fellow band mates entered the stage, the audience went wild. Starting by playing off stage, Lindsey entered to Moon Trance. From that moment there seemed to be no stopping her. Making full use of the small stage, Lindsey would be at one side of it before twisting and turning across to the other side. Without almost stopping, she moved into her next song Spontaneous Me before finishing her opening set with Shadows. 
She pauses a moment welcoming everyone to her show and announcing how pleased she is to be in Scotland and it being her first time. She also pointed out that her last name was the same as a nearby town and that she had Scottish roots (at which someone in the audience shouted 'Freedom' a la William Wallace style). From here she introduced her next song, Electric Daisy Violin.
Talking to the audience she says that she letting the boys get a break, only turning round to find them gone, a fact that the audience is already aware of (“Take 5 guys...”). She asks if there are any gamers in the room which gets a cheer and she announces that she's going to play a track that was made up from 120 layers and that the audience is free to join in with the singing. She is of course talking about the Skyrim Theme that was done with Peter Hollans. Following on from here Lindsey performs a stripped back version of her track Elements. 
As the next track begin, Lindsey explains the story behind it. She tells the audience about her trip to Kenya and meeting members of a tribe. She explains that although she couldn't understand them and they couldn't understand them, the one thing they did understand was music. And why, when she recorded the next track, she changed the lyrics to 'whole new place'. The song that she is talking about is We Found Love, which during the performance, the video of the track played in the background.
Her next track is inspired by the fact that when she was younger her dad used to read her books and this was her 'geek' moment. She heads into a medley of songs from The Lord of The Rings. From here it's into another medley, this time of Michael Jackson songs (including Eat It, Billie Jean, Gotta Be Startin' Somethin' & Smooth Criminal). Following almost without a break it's into Lindsey rendition of Good Feeling. 
Next it's one of her favourite tracks on her album, Zi Zi Journey. This is another track where the audience gets involved jumping up and down as well as fist punching and in some cases, head banging. Carrying this on is the dubstep track Crystallize before finishing with the track Transcendence. Of course, although she's left the stage, the crowd start chanting 'one more song'. And yes, she does come back for one more song. Donning a black eye mask, she comes back on the stage playing a Phantom of the Opera medley.
Overall, you couldn't ask for a better night. It's the first time that she has been to Europe and Glasgow was one of only two nights in the UK. For the ticket price (£12) you certainly got your money's worth as, although it didn't seem that there was a lot of tracks played, it certainly seemed longer. Lindsey commanded both the stage and the audience with confidence but yet enjoyed herself. What surprised us was that the night was sold out, something that wasn't exactly expected but shows just how much of a following that she has (either that or that Glasgow has got good taste in music!). Hopefully it won't be too long before she makes a return appearance in the Scottish city
Photos: © Vhari Lannigan
The Vibrant Sound
Official Site | Amazon | iTunes
Lindsey Stirling
Official Site | iTunes
