Live Music Highlights - March 2010
You probably don't need me to spell it out to you but The Phenomenal Handclap Band really want you to have a good time. Don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for getting bummed out by nervous, guitar-strumming adolescents but sometimes you just want to feel like The Fonz, dig? This band can make that happen. Funky, disco-movin' beats? Check! Hypnotic, sugar-sweet vox? Fo' sho! Truckloads of authentic, old-school NYC cool? AIN'T NO DOUBT. The action is go at Glasgow Captain's Rest, 5 March.
Dynamic girl/boy duo Blood Red Shoes love grunge and punk and pop in roughly equal measure and they tend to batter hell out of their instruments when they play live. It's a tried and tested formula for sure, but the Shoes' forthcoming album Fire Like This is a curt reminder why that particular equation has resulted in some of the most glorious music ever made. Watch them at Edinburgh Electric Circus on 8 March, Dundee Doghouse on 9 March or Glasgow King Tut's on 10 March.
Elegant and swooning, but with an urgent, brooding power swirling just beneath the surface, the music of Grizzly Bear finally reached a wide audience in 2009. You'd better move fast for tickets at Edinburgh Queen's Hall on 9 March but the lucky ones can expect a spellbinding show.
Formerly one half of psych-drone poster-girls Pocahaunted, the awesome Bethany Cosentino brings her new outfit Best Coast to Glasgow Captain's Rest on 9 March. This is wistful, scuzz-pop slacker music of the very highest order, dirty around the edges and bleached by the sun. Pure vibes.
Super-promising Dundonians Pensioner bring some melodic rock action to Dundee Dexter's on 14 March, Edinburgh Sneaky Pete's on 17 March and Glasgow Bloc on 18 March. Heavy guitars, interesting song structures and a sense of humour make them a solid live prospect. Support for the Edinburgh date comes courtesy of heavy-hitting two-piece Bronto Skylift and unkillable local legends Degrassi - you can't afford to miss a line-up like that.
Japanese post-rock darlings Mono play Glasgow Òran Mór on 17 March in what is surely to be one of the gigs of the month. With influences drawn from Morricone and modern classical, theirs is an engaging and unashamedly emotional take on the instrumental guitar music template. We have a hunch this will be epic.
Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts has been getting some serious attention from the tastemakers recently, so you'd better move fast for tickets to his gig on 18 March at Aberdeen Tunnels. His talent for narrative songwriting, combined with his spectacularly nuanced voice should make this one to remember.
Edinburgh lads The Gothenburg Address deal in lush, energetic instrumental guitar music and look set to take The Mill Edinburgh by sheer bloody thunder storm when they play Cabaret Voltaire on 18 March. Magisterial rock action is all but guaranteed, and a dreamy shoegaze influence only sweetens the deal.
Enigmatic electronic artist Frog Pocket certainly keeps his fans on their toes. One minute he's lulling you to sleep with a mournful string refrain, the next he's lacerating your senses with the kind of vicious glitch-core moves that make grown men cry. Expect the unexpected at Glasgow Captain's Rest on 20 March.
This month's instalment of the recently resurfaced Limbo at Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms on 20 March reads like a dream team of contemporary alterna-folk mavericks. Withered Hand takes the folk-pop thang to intense places with on-point lyrics and captivating delivery while support comes from Fence Records lynchpin The Pictish Trail, 8-bit upstart Les Enfant Bastard and Newcastle folkster John Egdell.
Ambitious Canadian indie types The Besnard Lakes walk an interesting line between psychedelic rock and the unorthodox compositional chops of Arcade Fire, resulting in a sound that is big, dreamy and hard hitting. They play Glasgow Captain's Rest on 28 March.