Scottish Live Music Highlights: May 2022

Welcome to May, the month which signals the start of summer festival season in Scotland. Kicking off with the family-run Knockengorroch, set in the gorgeous Carsphairn Hills of Kirkcudbrightshire, the festival takes place from 19-22 May and features the likes of Nova, Callum Easter and the Afro Celt Sound System. In the central belt, Wide Days takes place in Edinburgh on the same weekend (19-21 May), with conference panels galore and live music every night; you’ll find all of this year’s selected showcase artists (Bemz, Calum Bowie, Chef, Cyrano, Katherine Aly, Savage Mansion and Swiss Portrait) playing free shows at The Caves and The Liquid Room on Friday 20 May.

The following day also sees a return to the capital of multi-venue festival The Great Eastern. Based in the city’s Southside, the day will feature performances from Kathryn Joseph, Porridge Radio, Free Love, Anna B Savage, Soccer96 and The Wave Pictures amongst others. Outwith festivals, some pretty big names in the world of music bring their tours to Scotland this month too. Michael Kiwanuka swings by Glasgow’s O2 Academy on 6 May before Aussie electro-dance troupe Confidence Man celebrate their latest, TILT, the following night at Edinburgh’s Liquid Room. Also celebrating a new album this month, LA four-piece Warpaint bring Radiate Like This to SWG3 on the 13th, before their San Franciscan neighbours OSEES tear up QMU the following night.

The sound of the summer is winging its way to Glasgow this month in the form of Charli XCX’s Crash tour at the O2 Academy in the middle of the month (15 May), while New Zealand’s Lorde brings 2021’s divisive Solar Power (and hopefully some Melodrama bangers too – that green light, we want it!), to Edinburgh’s Usher Hall towards the end of the month (26 May).

Elsewhere, Tamil-Swiss singer-songwriter Priya Ragu brings her glorious damnshestamil LP to Glasgow’s The Garage (6 May), while C Duncan celebrates his latest, Alluvium, at The Caves (11 May) and King Tut’s (14 May). Poster Paints, featuring Carla J. Easton, finally get to play their debut headline shows at Nice N Sleazy (17 May) and Sneaky Pete’s (18 May), while Baltimore dream pop duo Beach House bring their eighth record Once Twice Melody to Barrowlands (23 May). Meanwhile, at a more grassroots level, AMPLIFI celebrate the final night of their three-part series at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh (25 May) featuring AMUNDA, jayda and Djana Gabrielle.