Northwest Gig Highlights – April 2014

Spring has sprung! Well, apparently. It’s still fucking freezing as we write this, but hopefully the magic of time should transport us to a land that’s warmer, drier and a little bit less sodding grey. And even if it doesn’t, there’ll always be gigs to go to.

Liverpool, admittedly, is taking things a little easier this month – understandably, with Sound City just around the corner – but East Village Arts Club continues to fight the good fight with little concern for our hectic schedules or our empty wallets (rightly so, obvs). The venue’s calendar features the delicate psychedelia of British Sea Power (5 Apr) and troubadour melancholia courtesy of Ásgeir (9 Apr, also at Manchester’s Deaf Institute, 13 Apr)... plus there’s also the small matter of Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip making a welcome return to the city (24 Apr), but you’ve all had that marked in your diaries for months, right?

Away from EVAC, The Kazimier plays host to melodically-inclined noiseniks Sky Larkin (16 Apr), but this month the real treats are down the road in Manchester. Schizoid krautpop loon Kiran Leonard dwarfs the Castle Hotel with his skyscraping imagination, providing a quandary for anyone who fancies that and the increasingly melodic tendencies of Let’s Wrestle at Kraak Gallery (both 5 Apr). In fact, the latter venue plays something of a blinder this month, also finding room for the murkily invigorating drone of Carlton Melton (17 Apr) and The Nightingales, the West Midlands’ finest post-punk heroes (22 Apr, also at Liverpool's East Village Arts Club, 18 Apr). Not too shabby, eh?

Over at the Roadhouse on 17 Apr, Ontario’s textured indie-folksters Timber Timbre check in to see if we need a little more gloom in our lives, which should serve as a tasty starter ahead of Fortuna POP!’s lyrical genius Withered Hand – he makes an appearance at Night and Day on 19 Apr. 

In any case, the Ruby Lounge is the venue most deserving of the epithet ‘winning’ this month. From Goldheart Assembly’s effortlessly absorbing simplicity (2 Apr) to nu rave survivors Klaxons (3 Apr), and even the dizzy extremes of everyone’s favourite bellowing weirdo Matt Berry (here with his band The Maypoles, 5 Apr), yessiree, they’re having a bloody good go at being all things to all men. But then shit gets real: Mike muthaluvvin’ Watt & the Missingmen jam econo on 13 Apr, reminding us all how it should be done, before a very special Factory night on Record Store Day (19 Apr, for all those of you grumbling that ‘every day is record store day’) featuring Section 25 and Crispy Ambulance. That’s a good thing, honest. The month’s rounded out by helmet-clad blues-punker Bob Log III (24 Apr, also at Mello Mello, Liverpool, 29 Apr), death-defying country miserabilist Micah P. Hinson (28 Apr) and the DayGlo pop party of Shonen Knife, the self-proclaimed ‘Osaka Ramones’ (30 Apr). It’s hard not to feel a little spoiled.

If you’ve got the stomach for more – and why wouldn’t you? – then the Netherlands’ favourite anarcho-experimentalists The Ex hit Soup Kitchen (21 Apr), as does hip-hop’s favourite new son Jonwayne on 30 Apr (also at The Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 29 Apr). You’d also have to be a complete divvy to avoid the legendary George Clinton & P-Funk at the Ritz (17 Apr) – the richness, invention and downright brilliance of his back catalogue are enough to lend perspective to your pride in making a cup of tea the correct shade of orange. Meanwhile, who’ll win out at Alkaline Trio’s set at the very same place (22 Apr)? Thirtysomething ex-punks on a nostalgia trip, or gothed-up youngsters high on the power and possibility of the three-chord pop song? Only one way to find out, of course, and happily it involves staying warm and thoroughly unrained-on. Perfect... Oh, and you should totally come to our birthday party. The Skinny Northwest turns one in April, and we're throwing a free party to celebrate, with Melodic Records' Patterns, Liverpool electronic duo WYWH, psych guitarist John McGrath, and a host of DJs at The Kazimier, Liverpool, Sat 12 Apr, from 8pm. To RSVP, email rsvp@theskinny.co.uk.

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Do Not Miss

Thunderbird Gerard @ East Village Arts Club, Liverpool, 10 Apr

It’s pretty difficult not to be at least mildly curious about anyone dubbed 'the Kerouac of hip-hop,' and this New York-born producer’s bass-heavy output certainly occupies the same territories of intuitive rhythm and total absorption. With absurd made-up genre terms like ‘ill wave’ flying around, it’s clear that Gerard attracts excitable nonsense like new carpets attract red wine spillage; but it’s not without good cause – beneath these slick, futuristic grooves is the story of a man who left his native US at the age of 20, subsequently living illegally on the poverty line in London, before somehow obtaining a publishing deal and relocating to his current home in Berlin. Hard work has only brought greater recognition, although we imagine being almost-unfairly gifted with ideas and an instantly arresting voice has helped as well.

His live shows are a sweaty affair, heavy on bouncing with plenty of arms held aloft, and filled with the infectious delectability of his essential T.R.O.U.B.L.E. EP. It’s not so much ‘why is no one else making music like this?’ as ‘why are so few people making music as good as this?’ – quality shines through at all times, with a little help from a thoroughly cocksure strut. Pretty FAB, all told.