Scottish Live Music Highlights: February 2023
Our February gig round-up includes bumper shows from Hen Hoose and Lost Map, the return of Independent Venue Week, and much more
Celebrating its tenth edition, the beginning of the month sees us arrive a couple of days into the 2023 UK-wide Independent Venue Week (IVW). While you won’t catch this year’s Scottish Ambassadors Young Fathers anywhere nearby (they play Norwich Arts Centre on 1 Feb), you can catch English rock legends Suede in a basement on Glasgow’s Renfield Lane as they play Stereo (3 Feb).
There’s crossover at the start of the month in Glasgow between IVW and Celtic Connections (until 5 Feb), meaning you can double down and enjoy a festival at the same time as supporting your favourite venues. Highlights include all-female and non-binary collective Hen Hoose at St Luke’s (4 Feb), and Lost Map Records at Òran Mór (5 Feb), celebrating ten years of the iconic Scottish label. In Edinburgh, following opening shows from Callum Easter and Maranta last month, Leith Depot continue their grand return with IVW shows from the likes of Pocket Monica and Hailey Beavis (1 Feb) and The Honey Farm and Queen of Harps (3 Feb). AMPLIFI is back at The Queen’s Hall with producer and disability rights activist Supermann on da beat, randombrownkid and Viv Latifa (1 Feb), and Summerhall welcomes Jill Lorean and Poster Paints for a co-headline show (2 Feb), before Grace & The Flatboys play Sneaky Pete’s (5 Feb).
Health and Beauty, credit: Marilena Vlachopoulou
Outwith all of that IVW excitement, Canadian popstar supreme Carly Rae Jepsen rolls into Glasgow’s O2 Academy (8 Feb) to celebrate her latest album The Loneliest Time, Weyes Blood brings And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow to QMU (10 Feb), Cate Le Bon affiliate Sweet Baboo plays The Hug & Pint and Dry Cleaning's deadpan delights can be caught at the iconic Barrowlands on the 17th. A slew of local talent can be caught in Glasgow throughout the month too. In honour of his latest album, Angel Numbers, Hamish Hawk plays St Luke’s on the 16th (note: he also plays dates in Dundee and Aberdeen this month), TAAHLIAH plays her debut live show at SWG3 (18 Feb), Rachel Sermanni plays The Glad Cafe (23 Feb), Health and Beauty plays The Poetry Club (24 Feb) and A. Wesley Chung plays The Flying Duck (25 Feb).
In Edinburgh, She Drew the Gun plays Voodoo Rooms (23 Feb), while the following day, pick between Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs at The Liquid Room or Nova Twins at La Belle Angele. Or keep things local with Edinburgh singer-songwriter SILVI at Sneaky Pete’s (8 Feb), Wavetable’s 14th instalment at Whitespace (23 Feb) or check out 249's Blind Date Special featuring Glasgow outfit Maz & The Phantasms on the 24th.