Slow Crush
Special Guests: SOM & Blanket
Venue: The Classic Grand (Lounge), Glasgow.
Date: 20th October 2025
Review: Dave Buchanan
Blanket
Glasgow’s Classic Grand was the perfect setting for a night of immersive, emotionally rich music, featuring a triple bill that stylistically spans the spectrum of shoegaze, post-rock, and doomgaze.
Blackpool’s Blanket opened the evening with a set that felt like a slow exhale. They immediately set a contemplative tone, with a slow build of sweeping Deftonian guitar textures, drawing the audience into a meditative state.
“A Sea of Bliss” lived up to its name with lush, ambient layers and a sense of serene melancholy. The band’s ability to balance heaviness with delicacy was on full display here, as the song ebbed and flowed with quiet intensity. “Where The Light Takes Us” however brought a more anxious energy, with crescendos that lifted the room and gave a sense of beauty within the chaos. It was a standout moment that showcased Blanket’s skill in crafting emotionally charged soundscapes.
Closing the set with an unreleased track was a ballsy move, but “True Blue” fit the bill, and hinted at the next evolution of the Blanket sound. One that I’m very much looking forward to hearing more of next year 
(3.5 / 5)
SOM
US quartet SOM followed with a heavier, more rhythmic set that leaned into their doomgaze roots. Their fusion of shoegaze, post-metal and doom brought a hypnotic intensity to the room, but with a more metallic live sound, these tracks sounded heavier than ever.
“Don’t Look Back” and “Clocks” pulsed with energy, and the bands tight, layered sound—thick with distortion and reverb—wrapped the audience in a wall of sound that was as cathartic as it was beautiful.
The standout of the set came with “Black Out the Sky” from their 2018 album The Fall—a track that hit with emotional sonic weight and had me grinning like a Cheshire cat.
Despite their new roles within the band, SOM looked relaxed and confident tonight, delivering a tight and immersive performance that resonated deeply with the crowd, who began to stir more noticeably during the set, responding to the band’s dynamic shifts and brooding melodies. If you haven’t checked out their latest release, Let The Light In, do your ears a favour, post-haste 
(4.5 / 5)
Slow Crush
By the time Slow Crush took the stage, the Glasgow crowd was fully engaged and raring to go. And their set did not disappoint. Slow Crush delivered a masterclass in dreamy shoegaze, with shimmering guitars and Isa Holliday’s haunting vocals floating above the haze.
Although known for their lush, woozy shoegaze sound, the band bookended their set with slightly more up-tempo tracks, “Covet” & “Glow”, injecting a palpable energy boost into their show, which, going by the response, the crowd certainly enjoyed.
While visibility was low, the lighting design—soft, moody, and often backlit—complemented their ethereal sound, enhancing the dreamlike atmosphere, as did the abundance of smoke (cough) adding a surreal quality to the performance.
Tonight the band delivered an incredible performance that felt both intimate and expansive all at once, and vocalist/bassist Isa Holliday was a magnetic presence throughout—her ethereal tones floated above the dense instrumentation, whilst frequently engaging with the crowd, even stepping off-stage with her bass to join them (4.5 / 5)
Despite some vocal clarity issues for all 3 bands, the night was a triumph of atmosphere and emotion. Each band brought something unique to the stage, and together they created a cohesive journey through sound. For fans of introspective, textured music, this was a night to savour.
