Scottish Gig Highlights – June 2016

With stadium rock Gods swooping in from on high, plus Glasgow's West End Festival and Edinburgh's Hidden Door in full flow, neither coast should struggle for a decent night on the skite this June

GLASGOW

Rather than dwell on the part-bewildering, part-perplexing, part-terrifying realisation that we’ve somehow reached the midway point of 2016 already, the month of Juno laughs off any perceived existential blues with a bill fit for the Gods. Live shows quite literally don’t get much bigger (or longer) than Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, who bring the jubilance and woe of 1980s seminal The River to Hampden Park for a victory lap. Every available hotel room within a 10-mile radius of Glasgow city centre was booked out when The Boss last came to town, and we imagine similar logistical chaos will ensue on 1 Jun.

If you’re one of many to miss out on briefs, then what better way to console yourself than by losing it to Joanna Gruesome’s inimitable brand of ‘dissonant wimp music’ (disclaimer: their words, not ours)? Cardiff’s finest bring their much vaunted live show to Stereo that same night, and if our five-star review from last year is anything to go by, attendees will not be walking away with a hungry heart.

Singer-songwriter BC Camplight was one of the big comeback stories of 2015, and you can see the alt-folk revenant up close when he heads for The Hug and Pint (2 Jun). Also on the comeback trail is Kate Jackson, formerly of The Long Blondes, whose stride was tragically cut short when guitarist Dorian Cox suffered a stroke in 2008. Kate returns to the same venue (4 Jun) with her solo project Kate Jackson & The Wrong Moves, a day before Alex Chilton's old pal brings his current iteration of Tav Falco and The Panther Burns to the CCA (5 Jun); thankfully negating the possibility of a Warriors-esque, Panther Burns vs Wrong Moves showdown.

London duo Big Deal's pastel-hued filtration of grunge is purpose built for summer nights, and you can treat yourself to one, possibly two, fruit-based ciders when catching them at King Tut's (7 Jun). Don’t go too heavy on the ale, however, because it’s from thereon in where the month’s listings truly hit their stride. First up: Berlin’s favourite enfant terrible Anton Newcombe and The Brian Jonestown Massacre head for Barrowlands (9 Jun), followed by chameleonic indie supergroup The Proper Ornaments, who are due to smash up The Old Hairdressers (10 Jun); before reformed heroes of the Hebrides, Astrid, find terra firma at Tut's (11 Jun); and Danish punks Yung square off with Icelandic electro-minimalists Samaris in the respective Sauchiehall Street battlegrounds of Nice N Sleazy and Broadcast (12 Jun) for what is arguably the biggest Nordic clash of the post-Viking era. 

Glasgow’s West End Festival turns 21 this year, and it's marked with a celebratory bill at Oran Mor (12 Jun). Although they've programmed the day, Belle and Sebastian won’t be playing at this one (that’s left to the likes of The Johnny 7, TeenCanteen, The Tron Community Choir, Snowgoose and The Wellgreen), but you’ll be able to see them when they take up a three night residency at Glasgow University’s hallowed debating chambers (13-15 Jun). Calgary art-rock three-piece Braids then roll into town at the less grand, but much cosier surroundings of The Hug and Pint (17 Jun), while St Luke's (21 Jun) is on hand to ensure the East End also has its fill with a huge booking in the form of Mark Kozlek’s Sun Kil Moon.

Is Ty Segall the hardest-working man in music today? Probably, but for this tour the fuzz shaman will be given a helping hand by garage rock all-stars The Muggers (comprising members of King Tuff, Wand and Cairo Gang). They play The Art School (22 Jun) in what will be a typically raucous night of crowd surfing, stage diving and mosh pits, and we can only hope the place is ready for St Etienne and The Pastels' altogether more genteel affair, which takes place the next night (23 Jun). If it isn’t, then fear not, for Will Toledo’s Car Seat Headrest are also in town five minutes across the road at Broadcast, where they’ll be touring Teens of Denial – the brilliant new album which touches on reference points as disparate as DMT, Nike Jordans, Vincent Van Gogh and William Onyeabor. Something for everybody, aye?

Winding up our Glasgow coverage we start with PAWS; fresh from a European tour and all set to embrace the warm comforts of Scotland when they play a neat domestic one-two at Edinburgh’s Summerhall (24 Jun) and then Stereo (25 Jun). PAWS might be loud, but trust us, compared to the hardcore no-wave thrash of aptly-named German trio Cuntroaches, they are but mere pussy cats. They latter play 13th Note (26 Jun) alongside Leecher, Kaspar Hauser and Rapid Tan, followed by the long-awaited live return of French dream-pop crusader M83 to the O2 ABC (27 Jun) and loveliest-god-damn-person-in-the-whole-of-music-right-now Julien Baker at Broadcast (28 Jun).

EDINBURGH

As June begins over in Edinburgh, multi-arts festival Hidden Door will already be in full swing at its 2016 residence on King's Stables Road. Of particular note are upcoming nights hosted by Glasgow collective TYCI, who bring Rosie Lowe, Nimmo, HQFU and WOLF across to the east (2 Jun). Long-serving Edinburgh promoters Limbo offer a showcase of regulars and new faces as veteran Liverpudlian songwriter Jane Weaver coalesces for the night with Law Holt, Neon Waltz, Callum Easter and Delta Mainline (3 Jun). Who says nothing ever happens here?

The beat don’t stop until the break of dawn when The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster’s Furious Five play The Liquid Room (4 Jun). Titus Andronicus’ 93-minute, 29 song, five-act rock opera epic The Most Lamentable Tragedy was one of 2015’s stand-out records, with some going one step further and describing the New Jersey four piece’s live adaption of the album as 'life-affirming'. See if that’s true for yourself when they play Summerhall (5 Jun), and then check out posi-punks Beach Slang – one of the other break out live acts of the year – at Electric Circus (10 Jun).

PiL’s recent world tour in support of 11th album What the World Needs Now has seen them visit places far-flung as Kharkiv, Santiago and... erm, Falkirk Warehouse (10 Jun). They’ve also sold out The Liquid Room (12 Jun), but there are still tickets to be had for Orchids’ Sneaky Petes show (17 Jun) and the long overdue return from Mercury Rev at La Belle Angele (21 Jun).

Do Not Miss...

The Melvins, Art School, Glasgow, 21 Jun

When The Melvins last brought the sludge to Glasgow it was on a wet February Thursday at The Garage back in 2006. On support duties that night were underground punk legends Flipper, who turned up with a certain Krist Novoselic on bass. Perhaps proceedings wouldn’t have been so sparsely populated then if a) word had got out about the ex-Nirvana’s man surprise attendance, and B) folk had known it would be the last chance they’d have to see the oddball outsiders play Scotland for a decade.

Now the wait is over and King Buzzo's men (ever-prolific in the studio) return with Basses Loaded, an album that does what it says on the tin with guest contributions from six different bass monsters including Steve McDonald, J.D. Pinkus, Jared Warren, Trevor Dunn, Dale Crover (who moonlights from his drum kit, as per the band's 1983 iteration), plus Novoselic. Even if your four-string knowledge only extends as far as the Seinfeld interlude, this one will be worth it for the usual selection of batshit cover versions alone. You've heard them do Station to Station, right?