Over two weeks in July, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut is hosting a series of gigs under the heading Summer Nights. Throughout the month, over 50 Scottish bands and DJ's are playing at the venue, showcasing the best new music Scotland has to offer. The full list of gigs is pretty impressive and can be viewed here - click
Last night, I went along to a show to see three of my favourite new bands. Unfortunately, I had to leave before AmatrArt came on which was a pity as I'd have love to have seen them too. Before I go on to the bands, I've got to say how much I enjoyed the Podcart DJ set betI cween bands too. Superb tracks including Bjork's Violently Happy which never fails to make me make me at least consider dancing. Nice work Halina
Miracle Strip (dodgy pics above and below my own) kicked off the night and started us off well. Their Miracle Milk is something I've been playing a lot recently and it was really pleasing to see how well the songs came across live. Took A Running Jump was a highlight for me, mainly because it's one of the best tracks I've heard in a while but the whole set worked. The band's combination of New Order and early Cure like atmospherics with vocals that marvellously bring to mind The Magnetic Fields is a winner and tracks like Lemon Sorbet and Girl Gang were just fantastic.
Le Thug followed Miracle Strip and their set was just as good as I hoped it would be. Their Place Is ep is a stunner and it's one that I've played over and over on my clear vinyl 12" copy. I have to mention that as clear vinyl is surely the coolest of the coloured vinyls. Anyway, their set featured most of the e.p.with Pals and Basketball Land sounding just as menacing yet noisily beautiful as the do on record. Live, the band generate a quite mesmerising sound and it was a really powerful show that I couldn't take my eyes off. There's a shoegaze influence at play no doubt but more towards the louder end of Ride or My Bloody Valentine where noise meets melody and works incredibly well. Le Thug are a special band no doubt.
Next up were blog favourites and recent interviewees Apache Darling who, despite writing about a lot, I'd never managed to see live. Like Le Thug, Apache Darling's live show more than matched up to their releases and they gave the crowd half an hour of quite marvellous synthpop. Opening with the superb More Than Me the band grabbed the crowd's attention from the off and the whole set was excellent. More Than Me aside, one song that really stood out for me was Go which was almost Yazoo like and that can only ever be a good thing. The band have recently spent a good bit of time honing their live sound and that work has paid off. The combination of their crisp electropop with Stefanie's frankly brilliant voice is a winner and you really want to catch them live if you can. The fact Andrew manages to play three live synths with no backing tracks is no mean feat either. It was a great set and it really got the whole room going,
As I said at the start, apologies to AmatrArt who I really wanted to see but couldn't stick around for. I gather their set was unsurprisingly great and I'll make sure I catch them next time. In the meantime, if you can, try and get along to one or two of the remaining King Tut's Summer Nights and enjoy what is clearly something of a golden age for Scottish music. Keep an eye on all the bands above too as you will want to see them live as soon as you can
Miracle Strip Facebook
Le Thug Facebook
Apache Darling Facebook
AmatrArt Facebook
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