I like Scotland; the rolling hills, William Wallace, Princes Street in Edinburgh, subtitled movies (even though they are speaking English) and now the delightful sounds of Camera Obscura.

The Glaswegian band made their first ever visit to Perth to play the penultimate show of the Beck’s Verandah program at this year’s Perth International Arts Festival. Stepping on stage to traditional Scottish folk ditty Donald Where’s Your Trousers? and a barrage of Scottish accents yelling out from the audience, they soon found stride and delved directly into their bag of wonderful pop songs.

Singer Tracyanne Campbell looked a picture as she belted out the opening songs. Looking at complete ease on the stage, the band produced a much tighter and heavy sound than expected; drummer Lee Thomson kept wonderful tempo through Teenager and a Robbie Burns-penned song and, along with Nigel Baillie on percussion, he kept a somewhat subdued crowd swaying nicely in the open-air venue.With a vast array of expats in the crowd, Camera Obscura looked and felt as though they were back at home. Except of course for the weather, as mentioned by guitarist Kenny McKeeve on numerous occasions.

Campbell proved herself to be a beacon on stage; her presence mesmerising and drawing the audience into her special little world of Glasgow life and falling in and out of love. But with the slower and quieter Books Written for Girls, the major drawback of the Verandah came into play. With a venue so dependent on corporate sponsorship, a large portion of the audience often sowed a less then invested interest in the act on show. Camera Obscura battled though the insisting chatter, picking up the tempo with Let’s Get Out of This Country, Hey Lloyd and the driving If Looks Could Kill.

And as they all do, their set drew toward its inevitable a close. Joined on stage by support act Institut Polaire for a clap-along extravaganza, I Need All the Friends floated across the Verandah to the joy of the sellout crowd. After the band finished with Eighties Fan before returning for an encore of two more songs. The sound mix seemed to float away on the evening breeze as bass overran all other instruments, however, with Campbell’s voice lifting above all, few noticed.Camera Obscura are a throwback to a time when pop music didn’t just entail that you came from a horrible reality TV program. Camera Obscura are pop stars with a inescapable talent and a wonderful grasp on the very idea of what pop should be.

Click here to see photos from the event.