Scottish Live Music Highlights: September 2026

Festival season, um, continues! Kicking things off in Glasgow this month is PITCH Scotland (2-4 Sep), a conference and showcase festival celebrating hip-hop and underground culture. While panels and discussions fill the days, its evenings are packed with local and international artist showcases – be sure to catch Sonedo and LOLA! at McChuills on the 2nd, with loads more to discover as the event unfolds. Raising funds for Refuweegee, No a Mean City: Sounds of Solidarity (The Art School, 5 Sep) features Walt Disco, GAÏA, Declan Welsh and James Emmanuel, while Freakender Festival (18-20 Sep) celebrates its tenth anniversary at The Old Hairdresser's with Radhika, Bikini Body, Shredd, Hound and more (read more on that in our September issue).

Biennial festival SONICA (24 Sep-4 Oct) is back with an impressive programme of experimental and audiovisual art and music this month too. At The Listening House in Pollok House, highlights include the shared bill show from Isa Gordon and SHHE (26 Sep), as well as experimental artist Alliyah Enyo, who specialises in reel-to-reel tape loops (27 Sep). At the same venue for the festival's full run, you'll also find installations from Lomond Campbell (MUO), Konx-Om-Pax (Colour Sound) and Radiophrenia, while Brian d’Souza brings Plants Can Dance to Tramway, where you'll also find Robbie Thomson performing his incredible Tesla coil piece XFRMR (26 Sep).

In the capital, Edinburgh Psych Fest (6 Sep) returns with an impressive lineup with Stereolab, Ty Segall and buzz band Angine de Poitrine topping the bill alongside Billy Nomates, Gwenno, Adult DVD, Mandy, Indiana and loads more. In Dunfermline, Outwith Festival returns with its all-dayer (5 Sep) featuring Man of Moon, Glass Cheques, Roller Disco Death Party and more, while the Substance all-dayer welcomes the likes of Declan Welsh and the Decadent West, Bottle Rockets, San Jose and Martha May and the Mondays to Dundee Music Hall and Hidden (12 Sep). In East Lothian, King Creosote, Kathryn Joseph, Lomond Campbell and the Countess of Fife play the Dunbar Music Festival (25-27 Sep), and if you fancy an island getaway accompanied by some top-tier music, head to the Caol Ila Islay Jazz Festival (11-13 Sep), with Fergus McCreadie, Tao and Laura Osa all playing on the 12th.

Festivals aside, tour schedules are picking up, with three stalwarts of the Scottish scene – Adam Stafford, Meursault (solo) and M. John Henry – playing Stirling (2 Sep), Edinburgh (5 Sep) and Glasgow (17 Sep). Declan Welsh and the Decadent West plays shows in Glasgow (24 Sep), Aberdeen (25 Sep) and Edinburgh (26 Sep), and Alice Faye plays Stirling (12 Sep), Irvine (13 Sep), Edinburgh (17 Sep) and Aberdeen (18 Sep).

In Glasgow, Sin Clair celebrates the release of her debut double A-side Affirmations #2 / Exhale at La Cheetah (3 Sep), A Parfait Luz Experience promises a unique evening of live liquid light projections from Sophie Babcock set to a soundtrack of music from Charlotte Devlin, Molly Sellors, Ichi's Ghost and Tom MacFadyen at McChuills (9 Sep), The Joy Hotel play Nice N Sleazy (10 Sep), Helicon play King Tut’s (12 Sep), Adam Ross plays The Glad Cafe (19 Sep), The Tubs (featuring Romeo Taylor) play Stereo (25 Sep) and The Yummy Fur celebrate their album launch at The Poetry Club (25 Sep). In Edinburgh, Nick Dow and Solar Exterior play the Leith FAB Cricket Club for Other Other Music (12 Sep), Sarah/Shaun, Hans Klammer and So So: If So play Voodoo Rooms (16 Sep) and The Micro Band celebrate their new album with an in-store at Good Vibes, followed by an after-party at The Bowler’s Rest (26 Sep).

Elsewhere, Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage play Aberdeen (The Tunnels, 10 Sep) and Dundee (Beat Generator Live!, 11 Sep), while in Edinburgh, catch David Thomas Broughton (Pianodrome, 15 Sep) and Death Cab For Cutie (Corn Exchange, 20 Sep). In Glasgow, catch A$AP Rocky (OVO Hydro, 4 Sep), Baby Keem (O2 Academy, 14 Sep), Rosa Walton (The Hug & Pint, 14 Sep), Holy Fuck (Stereo, 21 Sep), Man/Woman/Chainsaw (King Tut’s, 25 Sep), Lauren Auder (The Hug & Pint, 26 Sep), Carla dal Forno (The Glad Cafe, 29 Sep) and Nadia Reid (Cottiers, 30 Sep).