Jonathan Geddes' verdict three stars.

You suspect Paul Smith would never get to re-do his entrance when playing with Maximo Park. Here, however, in a rather smaller venue than the day job usually visits, he comically came out, decided he should enter to a Prefab Sprout tune, and re-appeared. This set the tone for an evening in which he hawked his side-project wares in a deliberately ramshackle fashion, aided by a backing trio.

If the small crowd was surprising, given that his return with Maximo in November has sold out the Barrowland, the music was more straightforward. Smith promised an indie-pop evening, and mostly delivered that. Softer, less exuberant and more jangly than Maximo, there were some sweetly beguiling tunes here, from the quick-snap drums and lovely guitar of opener The Deep End to the wiry indie of All The Things You’d Like To Be and a impressively soaring North Atlantic Divide.

Typically, the onstage chat was quirky, dropping in varied references to F Scott Fitzgerald and the Pastels along with attempts at humour. At times, as when his band jokingly dropped into Sultans of Swing, it was amusing, at other points it was a tad cringe-worthy, while having to stop not one but two different songs over forgotten lyrics was sloppy.

The biggest difficulty, though, was that some of his solo material felt insubstantial. Fill In The Blanks drifted in dull fashion towards heavier tones, I Should Never Know proved lightweight and old tune Dare Not Dive forgettable. If they were too flighty to convince, then at least the hooks of Break Me Down and Maximo oldie I Haven’t Seen Her In Ages concluded an inconsistent but enjoyably loose night strongly.