Scottish Live Music Highlights: October 2024

It's October, which means the 2024 Scottish Album of the Year will be revealed this month. Artists like Barry Can't Swim, corto.alto and Lucia and the Best Boys are up for this year's award, with The SAY Award ceremony once again taking place at the Albert Halls in Stirling (24 Oct). Earlier in the month, Glasgow has two big events taking place on 12 October. Annual music festival of discovery Tenement Trail takes over a clutch of venues in the East End (more on that elsewhere on the site and in our October issue), while Music Makes Glasgow takes over Drygate. Raising funds for The Sound Lab charity, who provide free music lessons and creative mentoring for children and young people, Terra Kin, Haiver and EYVE are all set to play.

And the rest of the month looks like this for local talent. Back in Stirling, neo-soul artist Becky Sikasa starts a run of tour dates across Scotland at Tolbooth (3 Oct) in support of her latest SAY Award-longlisted album, while the end of the month brings a similar string of shows from Roddy Woomble promoting his latest solo LP, During the Night We Fell Off the Map. Catch him in Dumfries, Crieff, Galashiels, Aberdeen, Inverness and Stirling (25-30 Oct).

In-between all that, in Glasgow, Randolph’s Leap frontman Adam Ross plays The Hug & Pint (4 Oct), Cowboy Hunters play Nice N Sleazy (4 Oct), corto.alto plays Saint Luke’s (10 Oct), and Rebecca Vasmant hosts a Rebecca’s Records night at The Rum Shack with Ari Tsugi and Azamiah (11 Oct). On 17 October, Zoe Graham headlines The Poetry Club, before Amy Papiransky follows suit the following night, celebrating her second album Friday’s Daughter. Nina Nesbitt continues to bask in the glow of Mountain Music at The Old Fruitmarket (18 Oct), while on the same night Mono hosts the official aftershow party for Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands, with a live performance from one of the trailblazing bands featured in the film – Sophisticated Boom Boom. The band’s guitarist, Tricia Reid, takes on our Q&A in our October issue.

A few days later, Donegal-born, Glasgow-based visual artist mokusla launches lovely people here, but it’s just not the same at The Rum Shack (22 Oct), while Indoor Foxes celebrates Sadolescence at the Garage Attic (25 Oct), before the month rounds out with a full band headline show from Tina Sandwich at Stereo (27 Oct).

In Edinburgh, Lewis McLaughlin plays Cabaret Voltaire (12 Oct), Theo Bleak plays the first of three Assai in-stores (11 Oct), Emily Scott celebrates Leave No Shadow, her recent debut as Chrysanths, at Summerhall (16 Oct), Elsie MacDonald launches Dressage Lessons at The Waverley (19 Oct), wojtek the bear play their rescheduled show at Summerhall (25 Oct), and in Dundee Man Of Moon play Beat Generator Live! (19 Oct).

Elsewhere some touring highlights across Edinburgh and Glasgow include Getdown Services (Saint Luke’s, 4 Oct; La Belle Angele, 5 Oct), Benefits (The Hug & Pint, 7 Oct), Saloon Dion (Legends, 9 Oct), Pale Waves (SWG3, 13 Oct), Pom Poko (Mono, 14 Oct), Mabe Fratti (Mono, 17 Oct), Astrid Sonne (Summerhall, 18 Oct), Elliphant (King Tut’s, 19 Oct), Darkside (QMU, 20 Oct; La Belle Angele, 21 Oct), Los Bitchos (Summerhall, 23 Oct; QMU, 24 Oct), mui zyu (The Glad Cafe, 24 Oct), Chelsea Wolfe (Saint Luke’s, 27 Oct), and Bolis Pupul (Sneaky Pete’s, 30 Oct; Room 2, 31 Oct).