The Sweet Kill/Witch Of The Vale/The DDN - Ivory Blacks, Glasgow 26th July 2026

Sitting in the car heading towards Glasgow city centre for another gig, like every other journey to whatever venue I'm going to, contemplating how tonight will pan out. It's not to a new venue, tonight I am in one of my favourite venues, I am heading "home" to Ivory Blacks. I have no fears about tonight, so my mind drifts off onto a topic I rarely really think about. What is music? Try to describe music without using the word music in any way. Even getting out of the car and going into the venue, this has taken over everything that is in my head. I head in early bypassing security, tonight's gig is another from my friend Frank, owner of Stigmata Promotions, all the usual greetings pass and I head into the venue still thinking What is music?

Here is what I come up with. Please bear with me, there is a relevance to tonight's gig. As simply as I can explain what I think it is. Music is a group of rhythmic sounds, put into a form to make some sort of sense, but it's not just a clinical order, music also has feelings added, a song then has lyrics too, they can be complete gibberish right up to the author bearing his or her soul for everyone to see. When it is released it is then what we as individuals, take from it. We can make it a worldwide hit, a cult piece, or to the other extreme, something we don't ever want to hear again.

On to tonight's gig, the act opening tonight's show is a local musician going by the name The DDN. The reason for the above point is relevant to The DDN. The best way to explain The DDN would to say he is an experimental electronic musician. Imagine the legendary Scottish artist Calvin Harris playing Freeform Jazz. Not something that is a topic usually featured here at Rockfiend. 

There have been very few times where I have omitted a band from a review, In my time at Rockfiend this has rarely happened, and never with a Rockfiend photo pass. I will say here, at Rockfiend, we try to be positive towards any performance. I was raised old school, " IF you cannot say something nice, don't say anything". I enjoyed some of what The DDN played and some I didn't. As I said, not something that appears often in Rockfiend, but because I liked some of his set, I have included him in this review. At the end of his set he humbly thanked everyone for coming along early for his set and let everyone know where to buy his albums.

Next we have a duo that has something very special. Witch Of The Vale are a minimalist duo, fitting into the ethereal and coldwave genres in Gothic music, and also very haunting. Erin Hawthorne's voice is truly moving. Imagine Enya with a Scottish accent. 

A few years ago I was standing alongside Actors frontman Jason Corbett, he stated "that woman's voice is incredible!" tonight's headline vocalist Pete Mills agreed after tonight's show.  There was a delay of several minutes in starting, there were a few technical issues, no sound in the monitors was one. however, Omar, the sound man was on the case and had it sorted quickly.



I could list a bunch of superlatives about Erins voice and every one would be true. After every song tonight there was a few second gap before there was applause, simply because the audience were mesmerised with Erin, to be honest, this happens every time I've seen Witch Of The Vale.  Even the music is minimalistic, it is hard to explain, it's more like a background harmony to Erins voice. They don't even have a setlist. 

I was about to go off on a direction to say Witch Of The Vale are not a duo to dance to, however, there have been a few remixes in the past that you can dance to, which I have played when DJing at Club Stigmata (sorry for the shameless self promotion). 

Erin has a new performing partner onstage, I never caught her name, but as she was wearing a cat mask, I'll call her Cat, well until I get a proper name. Cat moved rhythmically with the music behind a keyboard, at one point, it looked like she was trying to play with her left foot! 

As I said above, Witch Of The Vale are minimalist, there is no interaction with the crowd, not even naming songs, even at the end of their set, Erin finishes the song and says "We are Witch Of The Vale" and leaves the stage. In the early days, (another band I saw from their first ever gig) Erin was extremely shy, there was no interaction, maybe it has carried on as part of the minimalist performance.  I do use the word a lot, but if you take the time to see them live on stage, Erins voice will soothe your soul, no matter what you listen to, you will then understand minimalist.

Following on from my point at the beginning of this review, Music, and for that matter, music genres are personal. If you look on tonight's headliners social media The Sweet Kill call themselves Post Punk, Darkwave and Gothic Rock. Music genres are created primarily by fans.  For example, back in the late 1970s early 1980s, the term "Goth" didn't exist, but there are people who listened to certain bands and dressed a certain way got tagged a Goths, which they embraced. Now if that group of people got together and followed a band from the beginning, bought all their records, bought tickets to see the band play live and bought whatever merch was available, that band becomes that fan groups band, and if that group happens to call themselves Goths, then that band is now a Goth band, and it doesn't matter what Andrew Eldritch or Siouxsie Sioux say. I really love the both of them too.

Meanwhile. Tonight's headliner, The Sweet Kill are Los Angeles based, primarily multi talented Pete Mills, (who I find out later that he is actually Canadian) put a band together to perform live. I'll be honest here, I only really knew one song before tonight's gig.  As I have said before, when Frank Drake promotes a gig in Glasgow, I know, no matter who is on the bill, I know it is going to be a good night, Frank hasn't let me down yet. I love going to gigs with an open mind, not knowing a band, going to see them for the first time, you don't know if they will be good, bad or indifferent. It is a great way to "discover" new music to add to your library.

Tonight, The Sweet Kill have a fifteen track setlist, which I have. The first two songs "Destroy" and "Masters Of War" set up how this set was going to span out. After the second song it felt like I had known this band for a long time, songs like "Evil" and "Creeper" felt like old favourites!  When they got to song seven, there it was, the only song that I actually knew, "Darkness", I actually stopped shooting during this song, something I try to avoid doing.

Other stand out songs were "Blood Red Roses" and "Forbidden", which was the penultimate song. Like a lot of modern bands, they didn't have a final song then an encore. Pete told us about the rest of the bands tour, playing a lot of places they have not played before, including Amphi festival, then played their final song, which was a cover, and what a song to finish their set, Nine Inch Nails epic "Hurt"

This July has been the hottest July in a long time here in Glasgow, again there was a lot of sweat in the air. Tonight's crowd would have loved for the band to play on, who really wants a band to stop? All four members of The Sweet Kill were done for the night, they put everything into their performance, they deserved all the applause they got.

A lot of bands, when they finish, head downstairs to Ivory's "green/changing room" to recover for a few minutes before coming back to meet their fans, not The Sweet Kill, while the rest of the band packed away their equipment before joining frontman Pete, he went directly to their merch table, signing autographs and posing for photos with the sweat still running down his face. 

I don't know what it is about a Goth gig in Ivory Blacks, but people keep handing me their phones and ask if I can take their photo with members of bands. I will admit here, I'm not the greatest using a phone.

With tonight being another Stigmata Promotion gig, I usually wait until the crowd has left the venue, I get the band to pose for a couple of promo photos. I doesn't happen every time, especially if there is a club night afterwards, but I always try.

If you don't know Ivory Blacks, before heading into the main gig area, there is a spot where people can stand at the venues logo in lights, and a huge pair of wings, bands love to pose too, but only if there is time to do so.

If you don't know any of tonight's bands, even if you do know, head on over to your favoured social media streaming service and give them a listen to, even take in a video or two, you might find something to add to your own playlist.

See you at the barrier.

Photos by Jai Dee Photography