Live Music Highlights - April 2010

Hardworking female-fronted Welsh trio The Joy Formidable knuckle down to a slew of dates in Scotland this month. Expect atmospheric indie rock; heavy on melody but with plenty of driving, sinewy riffs. Glasgow King Tut's on 3 April, Inverness Madhatters on 4 April, Aberdeen Snafu on 5 April and Dundee Fat Sam's on 6 April – sounds like a solid bet to us.

This side of Howard Moon, there's few folk that have done more to raise the profile of fusion than Acoustic Ladyland. Jazz and rock might be natural enemies in most people's minds – and if that's true then this is the soundtrack to the most intense hatef**k you could possibly dream of. The energy and invention of their live shows is legendary – see it all kick off at the Aberdeen Tunnels on 2 April and Edinburgh's Electric Circus on 3 April.

This Is Music presents a tasty triple-bill at Edinburgh Sneaky Pete's on 9 April. Three Blind Wolves deliver vigorous, elbow-pumping folk oddities; French Wives do the spunky indie-pop thing and The John Knox Sex Club deliver poetic, noisy, off-kilter rock thrills. West coasters can catch the same bill at Glasgow Stereo on 10 April.

These New Puritans can lay claim to one of this month's hottest tickets – they play the ever dependable Cabaret Voltaire in Auld Reekie on 16 April. Their new LP Hidden is a glowering, rhythmical beast and by all accounts their live show is as transformed as their songwriting. This can only be good news.

Recent Chemikal Underground signees Zoey Van Goey swing by Limbo at Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms on 17 April to quilt us in their stirring, impeccably crafted lush pop goodness. Support comes from local kitsch-disco maverick X-Lion Tamer and Aberfeldy guitarist turned retro troubadour Chris Bradley.

US Psych veterans Wooden Shjips show us how it's done at Glasgow Stereo on 17 April with a display of heady, kraut-influenced noise jams. Only a sucker would expect pop from this posse, so squeegee your third eye and enjoy the trip.

With their gyrating, ecstatic rhythms and wee metal boxes that make "SCHHHWWAAARGHHH" noises, HEALTH are something of a pint-cradler's nightmare. But that's of no consequence to the brightly-coloured t-shirt-wearing youth that will flock to their gig at Glasgow Captain's Rest on 20 April. Noise, beats and rivers of sweat this way cometh.

Poet, provocateur and bona fide cultural icon Gil Scott-Heron plays Edinburgh's HMV Picture House on 21 April and The Warehouse in Aberdeen on 22 April. He may be touring off the back of his tremendous comeback album I'm New Here but this cat has enough classic material to play all night long. Don't sleep.

He's the archetypal loner who also happens to have collaborated with more alt-rock luminaries than you can shake a stick wrapped in flannel at; and on 26 April the enigma known as Mark Lanegan will roll into Glasgow's Òran Mór to revisit some classics from his staggering solo catalogue. From gloomy, midnight-black ballads to sinister, madcap-blues, Lanegan likes to lay it on thick – but when this dude is in the zone there ain't no one can touch him.

Crystal Antlers' underrated 2009 debut Tentacles may have fallen off the radar pretty quickly but we're keeping the faith in this heavy-hitting Long Beach troupe. Their more recent material (available for free download here) is riding a gorgeous, psychedelic pop vibe and should provide a nice counterpoint to their more aggressive back-catalogue. Well worth catching at Glasgow Nice N Sleazy's on 30 April, y'hear?