Northwest Gig Highlights – March 2015

After February's smorgasbord, the gig calendar seems somewhat thinner on the ground in March – but there's a strong showing of artists recently featured in these pages to make up for it, from Idlewild to BC Camplight via homegrown talent Kiran Leonard. But: let's begin at the very beginning. If you somehow find yourself privy to methods whereby you may obtain a ticket to see Tinashe at Gorilla on 4 Mar, execute them immediately. The rising young Kentucky star has emerged from a child actor/teen model career with a unique brand of sad-sweet, sky-high R'n'B, dovetailing pop promise with the kind of mean, melancholy beat-work that's as at home on a DIS Magazine mixtape as it is soundtracking lonely drives home through the Hollywood hills. Take the opportunity to hear songs from debut album Aquarius in as intimate a room – at least in relation to where she'll probably be in a couple of years – as Gorilla.

Cool. Public service announcement over. You're welcome. The girls continue to be on top this month, with several singular bookings bringing inspiring, idiosyncratic women to the Northwest, from Tune-Yards to Sleater-Kinney via Jane Weaver (the latter's gig at The Deaf Institute on 21 Mar is also, sadly – for us; we suppose happily for her – sold out, but again, keep your ear to the ground, erm, Facebook, for any last minute dropouts). Merrill Garbus aka Tune-Yards' kaleidoscopic freak folk should provide a nice counterpoint to Liverpool Anglican Cathedral's monumental – literally – seriousness, the New Englander's live shows being known for their energy; her most recent record, Nikki Nack, no less so (6 Mar). Riot grrrl originals Sleater-Kinney, meanwhile, delivered Christmas early for fans back in December when No Cities to Love, their first album in ten years, leaked three weeks too soon; a sinewy, spacious return to form, they bring it to Manchester's Albert Hall for one of only four UK dates (24 Mar).

Crowning these proceedings nicely is a very welcome reincarnation of the spirit of LadyFest, at the beloved Klondyke Bowls Club in Levenshulme on 14 Mar; the first event from a new collective assuming the historic LadyFest mantle and aiming to further 'Manchester's proud history of talented, creative and radical women,' it features tipped local acts Locean and LIINES at the top of the bill, plus the awesomely named Power Frau DJs to marshal the mood.

Elsewhere on the 14th there'll be sniffles and sayonaras as Manchester's indie scene prepares to say goodbye to the Carefully Planned All-Dayer, which, after 25 editions, six years and hundreds upon hundreds of bands and artists, including early gigs for Alt-J and Everything Everything, hosts its final marathon at the Castle Hotel on 14 Mar. Don't miss Liverpool's beautifully bonkers a.P.A.t.T..

If the passing of Carefully Planned leaves a void deep inside where some local talent should be, fear not: on 16 Mar at Soup Kitchen, you can go and support two of the Northwest's most dedicated young electronic artists in the form of Jozef K and Winter Son, who support the unveiling of Vessels' new, dance-led sound (as showcased on upcoming third – and four years in the making – LP, Dilate). Fact fans, and indeed fans of sky-scanning electronica, will be interested to note that Winter Son is also known as one half of the duo Ghosting Season, who, after having retired it a long time ago, reanimate their old worriedaboutsatan moniker for a special show at Gullivers on 19 Mar in celebration of their first album in six years, Even Temper. Two shows in nearly as many days, then, marking the completion of long-gestating albums that, fittingly, stay long in the mind.

So: to those recently featured artists. Roddy Woomble and Rod Jones of Idlewild told us in our February edition about the band's new lease of life on the eve of their 20th anniversary, with Jones commenting that “We’ve only just scratched the surface of where we can go with this new incarnation.” Those whose early teenagedoms were defined by The Remote Part – and newcomers via latest album Everything Ever Written alike – can assess the new lineup's live chops for themselves at The Ritz on 12 Mar.

If you get your kicks from intimate songwriting rather than stubbly Scottish anthemics then you may like to check out Saddleworth's finest, Kiran Leonard, whose polyglot musicianship and 'schizophrenic pop mini-operas' had our interviewer transfixed last summer; he's at Gullivers on 17 Mar and The Shipping Forecast on the 23rd. For something roughly inbetween – apart from the Scottish bit – you could do worse than give Bella Union success story BC Camplight a go: the Philadelphia troubadour brings the full-blooded splutter and brawling Beach Boys harmonies of comeback LP How to Die in the North to Leaf, Liverpool, on 11 Mar. All in all, it's a disparate – but discerning – month.

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DO NOT MISS: YOUNG FATHERS, NUMBER ONE RIVERSIDE, ROCHDALE, 14 MAR

As part of a tour taking in libraries and less obvious venues, the incorrigible Young Fathers – last year's refreshingly tight-lipped Mercury Prize winners – appear at Rochdale's Number One Riverside for a show that's more than worth crossing the Calder Valley for. “We have no shame in saying that we want to be huge,” the band's Graham 'G' Hastings told The Skinny in January last year; and with new album White Men Are Black Men Too due out on Big Dada in April, the Edinburgh hip-hop trio – also comprising Alloysious Massaquoi and Kayus Bankole – look set to finally make good on a promise seeded years ago, when they secured a management deal shortly after they were out of their teens; and then waited five years to release that award-winning debut, Dead. Expect to hear cuts from said first LP in all its neon-fuzzed, steadily rousing glory, as well as previews of the new material – and if you can't make the trip, they're at Leeds Brudenell Social Club on 22 May; Manchester Gorilla on the 25th, and Liverpool Kazimier on 7 Jun. [Elle Rockwell]