Scottish Live Music Highlights: February 2022

Kicking off February in style is the annual Independent Venue Week series which runs at indie venues all across the country. In Scotland, venues like Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh and Broadcast in Glasgow will be taking part with Callum Easter dropping into both on 3 and 5 February respectively. Head to independentvenueweek.com to find a venue taking part near you and support your local grassroots venues!

After getting off to a rocky and uncertain start last month, Celtic Connections soldiers on the best it can with a clutch of shows across venues in Glasgow until 6 February. Highlights of the remaining programme include Scots folk singer Iona Fyfe (Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 5 Feb) and three-times Scottish Album of the Year Award nominee Adam Holmes (Drygate Brewery, 4 Feb).

Postponements and cancellations continue to disrupt the gig calendar well into February, but there appears to be no stopping a couple of artists who landed in our 2021 Albums of the Year list as Wolf Alice play three nights at Glasgow’s Barrowlands (14, 15 and 16 Feb) with the acerbic wit of Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw arriving at Edinburgh’s Summerhall on 18 February before they play Glasgow’s Queen Margaret Union the following night.

Earlier in the month, London-based rock duo Nova Twins, who have been recently applying pressure to the MOBO Awards to introduce a Rock/Alternative category, are set to bring their heavy sounds to both Glasgow and Edinburgh this month, with shows lined up at King Tut’s (11 Feb) and The Mash House (12 Feb).

A few other shows getting us excited this month include Goodnight Louisa at Edinburgh's Voodoo Rooms (12 Feb) where she'll launch her exquisite debut album, Human Danger, and Paisley art-pop outfit The Vegan Leather at Stereo, Glasgow (19 Feb). We loved their Furious, Not Ominous record from last year and reckon it’ll be quite the party atmosphere making for a great first gig back if you’ve not yet ventured out.

A couple of artists with new records out this month are also swinging by Glasgow this February, with instrumental party band Los Bitchos bringing their debut, Let the Festivities Begin!, to Stereo (18 Feb) while Big Thief bring their latest, the rather wordy Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You to the Barrowlands (25 Feb).