Live Music Highlights - February 2008

Edinburgh

Okkervil River playing the intimate confines of Cabaret Voltaire sounds a bit special doesn't it? We certainly think so, so best snap up your tickets for this gig on 3 Feb while you can. Will Sheff is clearly one of the most talented songwriters around at the moment, and his band are equally capable of stirring up intimate atmospheres or driving walls of gorgeous melody. They're known for giving their all during their live performances, so you've got no reason to miss this.

Parisian lounge legends Nouvelle Vague sidle into the Queens Hall on 10 Feb for what is sure to be a unifying, must see happening for post-ironic chin-strokers and tasteless wankers alike. For the uninitiated, NV play post-punk covers in the bossa-nova style – their cover of the DK's Too Drunk to Fuck is simultaneously laughable and incomprehensibly awesome at the same time. A weird, wonderful night is assured.

Art Brut probably like Nouvelle Vague, dabbling as they do in ironic vocals and swaggering, head-nodding compositions – they play The Hive on 11 Feb. Ok, so Eddie Argos' out-of-key, contrapuntal lyrical deliveries might be a little too William Shatner for comfort, but fuck it, you'll be drunk and you can still dance to it.

Glasgow's own Sons and Daughters play the Queens Hall on 16 Feb, in what is surely the pick of Edinburgh's highlights. As anticipation builds around whether or not they will properly break through with forthcoming album This Gift, this gig (plus the previous night's at ABC Glasgow) will be the chance for veteran fans to bask in the genuine, thrilling brilliance of their new material. Gonna be ace.

Glasgow

Dropkick Murphys get things off to a hard drinking, foot-stomping start in Glasgow with a gig at the Barrowland on 2 Feb. Their 'celtic punk' image may sound like a gimmick on paper but their gigs are pretty full throttle affairs and with bagpipes and accordion on standby this could be a right old knees up.

Ayr's finest, Frog Pocket, dishes up something a little different with a set at 13th Note Cafe on 7 Feb. Incorporating breakneck beats, and live instrumentation including fiddle, this Planet Mu-signed one-man orchestra is Scotland's best kept secret. Fresh, inventive and absurdly talented, this is one for the diary.

Love them or loathe them, few bands can put on a show like the Smashing Pumpkins, and following last year's solid comeback gig in Glasgow, the band will be taking no prisoners in an effort to consolidate their position as one of the unmissable live acts of their generation. Expect a mega-long set, some surprising reinterpretations of old classics and lots of fuzzy guitar goodness. SECC, 12 Feb.

Quirky electronic pop act Metronomy round things out at King Tuts on 24 Feb with a synth-heavy set of 80s-influenced tunes that take influence from the likes of Devo, Kraftwerk and The Ramones. They might not be the finished article yet but this should be an interesting night out nonetheless.