Live Music Highlights - February, 2010

Detroit Social Club may hail from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but they don't let that stop them from channeling the muscular spirit of US rock into their impressively atmospheric tunes. With soulful, bluesy vocals and a deep bass pulse providing the backbone to their compositions there's more than a little of the BRMC about these boys, and that's a vibe we've got to dig. Watch them soar at Dundee Doghouse (4 Feb), Edinburgh Sneaky Pete's (5 Feb) and Glasgow King Tut's (11 Feb).

Leave it to the French to remind the rest of us that if the future is going to be about anything, it might as well be about sexy synth music and lazer light-shows. Cue Etienne de Crécy who, following in the footsteps of fellow bonkers Gallic dudes like Jean Michel Jarre and Daft Punk, will perform live whilst standing inside a giant, pulsating neon cube. Expect hard electro at Edinburgh HMV Picture House on 6 February.

Ok, so Brett Anderson's post-Suede shenanigans haven't been particularly inspiring, but new album Slow Attack is easily the best solo work he's recorded. The Talk Talk comparisons are a bit rich but these songs do have a certain elegance and majesty to them. 9 February as part of King Tut's 20th birthday celebrations, dunno if he'll do Animal Nitrate.

Up-and-coming dream-pop duo Beach House currently have the internet all hot and bothered with their just-released Teen Dream LP. Their languid, super-melodic compositions have a detached Broadcast-y vibe but with even more of a stretched-out, reverb-soaked romanticism about them. Manifest yourselves at Glasgow King Tut's on 10 February for the soothing sounds.

Veteran indie outfit Spoon continue Tut's birthday festivities on 14 February to promote seventh effort Transference. Infectious, angular guitar music is what these guys do best and frontman Britt Daniel is no mean lyricist to boot. Support comes from brilliant NYC upstarts White Rabbits whose searing live performances and smart, aggressive tunes deserve all the hype they're amassing at the minute.

Energetic seven-piece Los Campesinos! certainly have an enviable live reputation; their gigs at Aberdeen Tunnels(15 Feb), Dundee Doghouse (16 Feb) and Edinburgh Bongo Club (17 Feb) promise to be rousing affairs. True, their overwrought folk-punk moves can be super-obvious but they're guaranteed to give it some welly.

Having spearheaded the current post-medieval indie-step renaissance (you read it here first), Texas songsmiths Midlake deploy mournful harmonising, fragile melodies and gentle, lilting tempos like the last 500 years never happened. Smooth '70s synths and electric guitar round out this unusual but affecting package. Glasgow ABC, 15 February.

Brooklyn's premier prog-pop behemoths Yeasayer shimmy into Glasgow Òran Mór on 17 February for another mystifying display of soaring, danceable nonsense. Punters can expect big, ambitious tunes, multiple percussionists and some shameless showboating. In other words, a hell of a gig.

Well then, Nitzer Ebb are playing Glasgow Classic Grand on 17 February. In an ideal world everyone would be picking up their jaws from the floor at this point, but we're sure some of you are far too young to be aware of the bizarre and beautiful mutations that this band forced upon the genre of electronic dance music during the 1980s. Are they industrial? Are they electro? Are they house? Nah, they're Nitzer Ebb and they're brutal.

This month The Mill Edinburgh showcases acousto-pop songstress Carrie Mac and psychedelic Fife six-piece Ambulances whose lush, shimmering tunes should entice you to snaffle some free tickets from www.themill-live.com. Cabaret Voltaire, 18 February.

Oh my God, Pere Ubu are playing Glasgow Classic Grand on 20 Feb. I say playing, but really I mean participating in an extravagent audio-visual performance that straddles the gap between theatre and the radio play even as it transcends the very notion of genre. What the hell? Trust David Thomas and the Brothers Quay to come up with something this fried. As well as getting to see one of the best bands ever play live, we're also promised electronica, choreography and animations. I say this again: OH MY GOD.

Cymbals Eat Guitars be makin' some sweet noise at Glasgow Captain's Rest on 21 Feb. Experimental, cathartic guitar rock with tons of sweet hooks? Boys gonna make it happen.

Thomas Truax sees out the month with a performance of Songs From the Films of David Lynch at Mono as part of the Glasgow Film Festival on 23 February. That Truax's covers manage to out-weird many of the originals is testament to his talent and originality. We'd expect nothing less from the man who invented an instrument called 'The Hornicator'.