This image: Ryan Adams
Jordan Worland, from local music website Slate the Disco, selects his must-see gigs in Cambridge during September
September sees the Cambridge music scene wake up again after a sleepy summer, and our first tip is the inaugural Subterranean day event taking place at the Corn Exchange on the 23rd. Cambridge has dabbled with all-dayers before but none has ever had the space or central location that the Corn Ex offers.
The main auditorium is going to host three small stages with the crowd all around them, think a kind of Jools Holland set-up. Featuring 21 acts over four stages, Subterranean aims to please all varieties of guitar music fans with a mix of touring and local acts performing. Our tips from the bill include Manchester all-female five-piece PINS whose music combines noise, power and melody with sonic, buzz-saw guitar; The Amorettes with their hefty sonic nous; and local outfits Grieving and The Baby Seals.
The same venue hosts a sell-out gig from Ryan Adams on the 21st. Ryan Adams first tasted musical success as part of the alternative groups The Patty Duke Syndrome and Whiskeytown. Following the bands’ demise, he wasted no time in launching a solo career for which he has found success in his blend of heartfelt angst of a country performer with the brashness of garage rock.
This image: PINS
There is an exciting punk-jazz tag team taking to the Blue Moon stage on the 23rd. The pairing is heavyweight saxophonist Alan Wilkinson with eager young gun-for-hire Andrew Cheetham on the traps. Expect sweat, skronk and paint-stripping ferocity – starting full throttle and revving up from there.
There’s a busy month down Chesterton Road at The Portland Arms. Our standout show has to be the Mercury Prize nominated The Big Moon on the 24th. Bold, articulate and with an insatiable ear for melody, The Big Moon released their debut LP back in April and it was brimming with nostalgic indie sounds, comic insouciance with romance and adventure, all tied up in noisy, guitar-led, hook-filled pop.
Our next Portland tip is Texan songwriter Micah P Hinson who is in town on the 29th. Hinson has an immense ability to summon beautiful music out of the most bitter of experiences. He’s in the UK this month to promote the release of his latest album, Presents the Holy Strangers, which is a take on a modern folk opera.
The Surfing Magazines is a new project from familiar faces. Featuring two thirds of The Wave Pictures and one half of Slow Club, the band’s garage rock crunch matches the menace of Link Wray to some poignantly British songwriting. Their debut album is out 1 September and they play The Portland on the 8th.
This image: The Surfing Magazines
Hannah Lou-Clark creates a blend of riff-heavy alternative and melodic indie-slash-dream pop which is remarkably fresh. Her Portland show on the 1st is definitely one to check out, as is The Districts, who perform on the 3rd. Their latest record, out last month, has an intense sound created with charging guitars, thunderous drumming, and Rob Grote’s searing vocals. Their live show is highly recommended.
Little Barrie are Portland bound on the 12th. The trio are led by Barrie Cadogan (guitarist extraordinaire for Primal Scream, Edwyn Collins, Paul Weller and Spiritualized), and they’ve just released their first record in four years, Death Express (which features their Better Call Saul theme tune).
The synth duo of Ben Fletcher and Tom Higham – the long-standing friendship and musical partnership that is known as Aquilo – also hits Cambridge this month. They released their latest album at the start of the year and it is a record full of heavy hearts and a seemingly bottomless well of lush, plaintive melodies. They bring their melancholy atmospherics to The Portland on the 19th – one for fans of older material by The xx.
A busy month at Cambridge Junction includes Woodley Taylor (7th), Jess and the Bandits (14th) and The Rails (18th). Our Junction must-see goes down on the 19th when both Danny & The Champions of the World and William The Conqueror perform, both having released exceptional new records recently.
