Scottish Live Music Highlights: December 2024
High-profile pop artists are hitting Scotland for their end-of-year celebrations, but there's also plenty of Christmas nights out with local artists this December
It would be rude not to start proceedings with a trio of artists who play the OVO Hydro this month that feature in our top 20 albums of the year – cult classic Charli xcx (2 Dec), Dublin post-punks Fontaines D.C. (4 Dec) and New York wordsmiths Vampire Weekend (8 Dec). Also be sure to seek out Charli collaborators Romy at Old Fruitmarket (14 Dec) and A. G. Cook at SWG3 (15 Dec).
If you like your December gigs with a whole lot more Christmas spirit of course, then we’ve got you covered there too. If you want to be drowning in festive cheer, The Brothers Fife play shows in Edinburgh (Bellfield Brewery, 10 Dec) and Glasgow (The Rum Shack, 11 Dec). Meanwhile, Lost Map Records’ annual Humbug brings Afterlands, Alabaster DePlume, Susan Bear and Pictish Trail to Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre (14 Dec), and Tommy Reilly’s All Star Christmas 9 takes over The Rum Shack (21 Dec). Lineup TBA, all proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Earlier in the month in Stirling (6 & 7 Dec), raising funds for Tiny Changes, Sing the Greys celebrates the music of Frightened Rabbit over two nights at the Tolbooth, while the following weekend in Glasgow, Music Is the Light are raising funds for mental health charity SAMH at Stereo (15 Dec) with performances from Haiver (featuring Frabbit’s Billy Kennedy), Darren McGarvey and KMD.
And the rest of the month, rich in local talent, looks like this. Jamie Sutherland celebrates The World As It Used to Be at The Hug & Pint (3 Dec) and Voodoo Rooms (8 Dec), Jill Lorean launches Peace Cult at Mono (4 Dec), Cahill//Costello celebrate their second collaborative record at The Rum Shack (4 Dec) and Sneaky Pete’s (6 Dec). Odd Luke launches Surface Tension at The Poetry Club (7 Dec), Wendell Borton launch Big Love at The Hug & Pint (13 Dec), Loup Havenith releases Understand at Stereo (13 Dec), and all female and non-binary songwriting collective Hen Hoose celebrate EP3 at CCA (14 Dec).
Dead Pony. Image: Euan Robertson.
Launches aside, in Edinburgh Amplifi returns to The Queen’s Hall for its last outing of the year with music from Groove Down, Juniper LAI and Nuna (4 Dec). Works In Progress takes over Leith’s Dissenter Space (14 Dec, 2-10pm) for a whole day of immersive and experimental audiovisual performances, while in the week leading up to the event successful applicants will have their music broadcast on EHFM. On the 17th, KuleeAngee bring their dancefloor-fuelled indie-electro to Sneaky Pete’s (and Nice N Sleazy, 19 Dec), while Quiet Houses bring their dreamy indie-pop to Cab Vol (20 Dec).
In Glasgow, the Glasgow Songwriter Round returns to King Tut’s with Alice Faye, Grayling, Kenneth-Noah Blair and Julen Santamaria (9 Dec), while Dead Pony round off their biggest headline tour to date with a show at QMU (13 Dec). Celebrating ten years of the local queer feminist events collective, Spite House party at Mono with Lung Leg, comfort, Blue Kanues and Blues Angles (14 Dec), Theo Bleak headlines King Tut’s (19 Dec), Man Of Moon play Saint Luke’s (20 Dec), Roddy Woomble does double duty at The Hug & Pint (20 & 21 Dec), and Doss round out their year with a rager at Stereo (21 Dec).
After Christmas, Idlewild play the Night Afore at Assembly Rooms (30 Dec), while VoxBox get NYE celebrations underway early with their afternoon BYOB VoxBox Hogmanay Jamboree (31 Dec). On 1 January, Hogmanay celebrations continue in Edinburgh with The Vaselines and Sacred Paws at Portobello Town Hall, while for First Footin’ artists like Karine Polwart, Dead Pony, Zoe Graham and Spyres play various spots across the city. In Glasgow, King Tut’s New Year’s Revolution series kicks off on the 2nd, and The Hug & Pint’s First Footing shows get underway on the 4th.