I went to the Market Bar last night with a friend from church, to celebrate the end of work (for me, at least). I hadn’t been out in Inverness for a long, long time but was glad to be – catchy and energetic Alness band The Side were playing.

Their gig was excellent – they blast out funky, poppy rock music, with a chirpy cheerfulness and exuberance mixed with great guitaring and keyboarding. Imagine Keane doing a gig after spending a day eating too much sugar and listening to a bit of Bob Marley, and you might get a sense of their sound. Or else you could visit their MySpace – One Fine Day and Forever Changing are particularly outstanding tracks.

It was the second time I’d seen them and I hope to do so again – ideally in a bigger venue than the matchbox-sized Market Bar which leaves you with ringing ears any time there’s a vaguely loud act on stage. Annoyingly, I forgot my camera.

To our pleasant surprise, though, support came from another person from our church, Peter Noble, who played an excellent set of wee ditties about the funny occurrences of everyday life.

On the way home, into the wee small hours and after an evening of Grolsch and tinnitus, my friend and I bumped into a couple of street pastors, including yet another Hiltonite. Seemingly, anyone from church worth their salt was out on the town last night.

I tried to explain we’d just been on a prayer walk, but I don’t think I was all that convincing…