East Kilbride legends Declan Welsh and The Decadent West (DWDW) don’t need much of an introduction here at Discovery Music but incase you are not familiar then here we go!
Fronted by their namesake Declan Welsh, the Decadent West are the collaborative name for the band who bring the act all together. Releasing music for the past 6 years and performing for even longer, DWDW released their first much anticipated album Cheaply Bought, Expensively Sold late 2019 to high critical acclaim. Having emerged from lockdown stronger than ever, last year the four piece went on to sell out 3 back to back nights at Glasgow’s infamous King Tuts venue later followed by a sold out Barrowlands headliner in November. Having since released a four track EP in 2022, DWDW intend to drop their second full album ‘2’ later this year.
Concluding a short spring UK tour, DWDW ensured that Scotland were to be the climatic ending to that tour. Hitting Edinburgh’s La Belle Angele on Saturday 22nd April, the band were joined by Glasgow based rapper Psweatpants who opened this evenings proceedings.
Psweatpants
An intensely fulfilling opener, Psweatpants brings something refreshing to the metaphorical table. Charismatic, playful yet passionate in every word of his delivery, P knows just how to get a crowd going. Having released his own album Life Was Sh*t, It Still Is Now just days before the gig, it looks as though P has brought in a crowd just for his set. But even the most cynical audience member – who looked on in confusion of a hip hop artist opening for a rock band – had warmed to this Glasgow based rapper by the end of his dynamic opener. Some will dispute the merging of two very different genres sharing a stage but I welcome it with open arms. By widening the expected reach it helps bridge the musical genre gap which can potentially lead to beautiful fusions.
Declan Welsh and The Decadent West
A tightly packed La Belle Angele thirstily anticipate the arrival of tonight’s headlining band – Declan Welsh and The Decadent West. I can feel my space being slowly closed in on as more and more people push their way forward. As the band take to the spotlight and the first few bars of No Fun kick in, the crowd literally catapults towards the stage taking me down with them. This is what live music is all about. Feeling part of something so passionate that general societal boundaries go out the window. It’s animalistic at its core, fueled by pure joy and one of life’s purest forms of escapism.
Playing songs from across their varied back catalogue it is the earlier DWDW tracks that gain the biggest crowd reaction. Songs like How Does Your Love, Times and Talking to Myself have everybody bouncing and singing along. New tracks Mercy, Kind of My Head and newly released I Don’t Know Why from the upcoming second album ‘2’ go down well too. These tracks have a different energy about them to the poppier first album but reflecting on last years Impermanency EP, the change in tone was already being pre-empted and feels like a natural progression for the band to move in.
As a front man, Declan Welsh is immensely captivating. Well articulated, the poet dictates his passions with sincerity and hides no part of his enthusiasm for what he does. This evenings show was particularly special thanks to the extended band family being welcomed back on stage making this quartet a septet for the evening. The added guitar depth and backing vocals brought DWDW to another level this evening which they’d be pushed to top anytime soon (although no doubt they will). The highlights of the evening come at the encore when Declan dedicates a beautiful solo rendition of The Ronettes classic Be My Baby to his partner before the whole band return for the anthemic Absurd. Declan Welsh and the Decadent West metaphorically blew the roof of La Belle Angele and it’s a sore come back down to reality when the lights finally come back on and it’s time to go home.
Words by Anne Kelly