I don’t think this year there was one live band that stood out for me in the way that Book Group did last year but the best live bands can certainly be fund in amongst the list of the best performances I saw below in 2013, in reverse chronological order:
De Rosa – Portobello Town Hall – Saturday 14th December 2013
Pictish Trail – Portobello Town Hall – Saturday 14th December 2013
The Blue Aeroplanes – Broadcast, Glasgow – Wednesday 4th December 2013
Book Group – Victory Lap single launch – Teviot Underground, Edinburgh – Friday 29th November 2013
Withered Hand – Cupar Arts Festival, Elmwood College, Cupar – 11th October 2013
Wire – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow – 17th September 2013
Randolph’s Leap– The Glad Cafe, Glasgow – 6th September 2013
St Kilda Mailboat – The Glad Cafe, Glasgow – 6th September 2013
Cancel The Astronauts – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh – Friday 2nd August 2013
James King and the Lonewolves – Stereo, Glasgow – Friday 19th July
Adam Stafford – Non-Zeros, Dundee – 7th June 2013
Bob Mould Band – Oran Mor, Gasgow – Saturday 18th May 2013
Vladimir – Beat Generator Live, Dundee – 23rd March 2013
Kid Canaveral –Beat Generator Live!, Dundee – 16th March 2013
That’s some list – shows from Wire and Bob Mould – the return not just of James King and the Lonewolves but also De Rosa, an awesome single launch set from Book Group and a couple of wildcards – HM Pictish and St Kilda Mailboat. A great year for gigs.
During the year I went to 42 shows more than 2012 (38) and even 2011 (41).
In 2013 I saw 18 acts perform more than once (2012 – 18, 2011 – 13, 2010 – 9). The 18 acts were as follows:
Book Group, Kid Canaveral (6)
Hookers for Jesus, Randolph’s Leap (4)
The Hugs / Playground Tactics, Vladimir (3)
Cancel The Astronauts , eagleowl, Edinburgh School for the Deaf , Et Tu Brute??, James King and the Lonewolves , The Last Battle, Panda Su, Pictish Trail, St Kilda Mailboat, Sonny Carntyne, Adam Stafford, Wozniak (2)
The list of bands that I’ve seen more than once in each of the last 3 years is now reduced to Kid Canaveral , Cancel The Astronauts, Edinburgh School for the Deaf, and Hookers for Jesus.
Geographically I went to shows in Dundee (14), Edinburgh (11), Glasgow (7), Cupar (3), Kirkcaldy (2), Aberfeldy, Anstruther, Holmfirth and Newport-on-Tay (1).
The shows were spread over 27 different venues, 14 of which I visited for the first time. My biggest gap between shows was 22 days.
