An airly Rabbie Burns dae...
I just thought I’d take a sec to recall the last couple days before I left for Korea, since they were a bit notable.
Monday I went and saw the Toasters at the Middle East. The level to which they-and ska-have sunk was underscored by the fact that they were playing the upstairs, rather than the big room downstairs. And the show overall reflected it. The only person left from the Toasters at their best is Bucket, and… well, they’re not as tight by half, and the songwriting’s gone downhill. It’s great to see them carrying on, but it was also pretty melancholy to such a great band brought low.
The other thing I wanted to note was that Tuesday was a Gordon & MacPhail scotch whisky tasting at Federal Wine. Here’s the lineup:
- Benromach 6
- Bladnoch 13
- MacPhail’s 15
- Benromach Portwood 22
- Millburn 27
- Glenrothes 30
- Athol Brose liqueur
The young Benromach was surprisingly good, with a nice smokey flavor when I would have expected something really raw. The Bladnoch was another pretty characterless lowland. The MacPhail’s is an independent bottling of… I think it was Glenfarclas, and wasn’t bad. If I recall correctly (must take tasting notes at these events, even if it *is* in cramped quarters), the Glenrothes was quite a different experience. But the liqueur was just a bad case of spewage waiting to happen. That’s not one I’ll ever forget. Yaggis!