\n — @adurdin is thinking aloud

Live Music

Last December I realised what a great place Edinburgh is for live music. Even apart from the Fringe, it’s a popular place for bands of all sizes. And Glasgow’s barely an hour away, too, and it also hosts many live music events.

I’d been to see quite a few gigs while here: Jonathan Coulton on his first ever visit to Scotland (and again on his second visit); Emiliana Torrini; Death Cab for Cutie; and My Friend the Chocolate Cake. But I found out about most of these by searching specifically for the band, and tour dates.

On December 8th last year, purely by coincidence, I found that Deerhoof were playing, that night, at The Bongo Club, just a few minutes walk from my flat. I’d recently discovered their album “Friend Opportunity”, and while it was still strange to me, I had liked what I’d heard. So I went to see them, and was blown away. No doubt it’s cliché to say so by now, but they were far more frenzied and energetic live than on the CD.

So that serendipitous discovery set a little wheel turning in my head. I did nothing about it in January, but come February I decided to search for shows on that month. And was thrilled to find that Shearwater were playing in Glasgow on the 23rd of that month—another of my recent discoveries on eMusic, and I’d really loved what I’d heard; so I went to see them. And decided on a not-quite-New-Year’s resolution sort of thing: to see at least one live music gig each month.

March was MONO, an instrumental post-rock group from Japan. Unfortunately their live performance was a little disappointing, the usual lushness of their sound was lacking.

I then promptly forgot my resolution for most of April. Typical. Towards the end of the month, I went searching again, and ended up deciding on two gigs in May: Woodpigeon on the 2nd, and Mark Knopfler—tomorrow, in fact. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s gig, and all the rest this year.

Finally, a wee plug: if you’re in Edinburgh or Glasgow, Ripped Records (also on twitter) is a great site (put together by a mate of mine, Matt Riggott) to find out about upcoming music events.