Broadcast – Stereo, Glasgow

Vespertine dusts off his winter smoking jacket, has his batman prepare his tweeds and ventures out to check out Broadcast; Gigs can be more than just music. Great gigs are about a series of factors; venue, company, mood…. even weather. A series of perhaps unrelated but subtly interlinking elements that come together to create magic. [...]

Grizzly Bear – Glasgow ABC2

Vespertine on the happening Yanks – Last time GB played Glasgow it was in the extremely intimate surroundings of Nice n Sleazy and so something has clearly been happening for them in the interim. That something is the album ‘Vekatamist’ and the live shows that have accompanied it. The album is this year’s left field [...]

Kap Bambino – Captain’s Rest, Glasgow

‘Extreme’ is a word bandied around fairly frequently and often too easily. Television shows and newspapers are guilty of it, but so too is the music world. Things which are slightly left of centre get given the label, things which are one louder, things where people feel screaming = some sort of soul. Gallows get [...]

From the sublime to the ridiculous

Contrast. Not only is it a feature on your telly, it’s also an important part of any music show. You can take a rampaging blues-rock monster, a skinny indie kid and a hard-bitten gangsta rap type fellow and there you have it; differences highlighted. Later with Jools Holland this weekend tried another, very different tack; [...]

U2 to ‘Donate Tour Profits to Charity’ – Only Not Really….

Calling out U2 for their sheer undiluted arseholeness is a bit like lambasting the rain; it might relieve some frustration but it’s ultimately pointless. After a while, you start to suspect that it isn’t really their fault, that they might just be genetically conditioned to be such complete and utter tools. But then comes news [...]

Happy Birthday to Us! – Extreme Listening Mode is 1

Doesn’t time fly? The world was a very different place 12 months ago when what would soon be the recognisably scary orange and black colour scheme loaded up and Extreme Listening Mode came into being. Since then we’ve seen a lot of changes but what has been undeniable is that ELM has continued to exist. [...]

Ladytron – ABC, Glasgow

ELM’s resident curmudgeon Vespertine checks out the hotly-tipped electro act; I approached this gig with an open mind. I knew a few Ladytron songs but had no in-depth knowledge of the band or the set they were likely to play. But the company was good, and I was able to have a few pints and [...]

The View – Ocean Nightclub, Kirkcaldy

Hubris –noun excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance. The really terrible thing about hubris in a professional, be they an artist or an artisan, is that it causes complacency. It becomes really easy to take things for granted, to coast, to get by. Focus gets lost, things start to slip. Shoddiness abounds. The last time ELM [...]

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals – Birmingham Academy

by E Streeter About a year ago I went to see Ryan Adams and the Cardinals with a friend and having seen about an hour and a quarter I was really none the wiser as to whether Ryan Adams is a rock musician trapped inside a wistful country boy’s shell, or not. I’m still not [...]

Sigur Ros, Glasgow Carling Academy

Photo courtesy of Heidi Kuisma An eagerly awaited sold out gig and one that finds the Icelandic quartet at a crossroads of sorts. New album ‘with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly’ was something of a progression for the band, drawing from the acoustic work the band produced for their recent DVD as [...]