Festival – Tenement Trail 24 – Breaking Glass Magazine

Tenement Trail, multi-venue across Glasgow, 12th October 2024

Scotland consistently brings a special creativity to the music scene that deserves to be celebrated, and in the time-honoured fashion of the multi-venue urban music festival, this year’s Tenement Trail set out to do exactly that. With many such events across the country to choose from, there are some real pluses with this one – at less than £35 a ticket, you’ve got your money’s worth by mid-afternoon, and with the venues ridiculously close together there’s no worries about rain stopping play. In fact, nothing seemed to stop play and the running times were kept to on an impressive basis for an 11 hour function. Whatever your preferred genre, you’d find something to suit here, and an abundance of new music to discover too. Taking in the iconic Barrowland Ballroom, BAaD, St Luke’s & Winged Ox, Van Winkle, 226 Gallowgate and McChuills, I knew where I’d be heading for most of the day, but managed to squeeze in a few other venues first.

Opening up the festival, an early kick off didn’t stop Van Winkle being packed for Scotstown Dance Band, folk and football shirts a fitting start to proceedings. Over at the beautiful surroundings of St Luke’s for some chilled tunes from singer-songwriter Sophia Saudi, then through to the Winged Ox stage where Honey seemed surprised by the high turnout while very easily filling the room – seems they may have more support than they realise.

top: Scotstown Dance Band
middle: Sophia Saudi
bottom: Honey

So over to BAad for the rest of the day, their line-up proving the biggest pull for me – not that there wasn’t plenty to choose from elsewhere, but a couple of the bands on here swung the decision (to be fair, one of them made the decision, no big surprise there).

First up, neverfine brought synth pop with CHVRCHES vibes to the stage, new to me but they seem like a tight-knit unit and ones to keep an eye on. Next up, TTSSFU (aka Tasmin Stephens) has a vocal reminiscent of Liz Fraser and bare feet reminiscent of Sandie Shaw – dream-pop with a heart-shaped guitar but nothing saccharine about the performance.

top: neverfine
bottom: TTSSFU

Having caught The Era’s debut set supporting VLURE at London’s legendary 100 Club, I was keen to see how things have progressed in the last year. There can’t be too many gigs where the sound team get requests for ‘more harp’ but more harp, distorted to the max, was definitely welcome. Their confidence is rightfully growing and recent single Black Leather Lover is a triumph live, already inducing a singalong from the crowd. Leather jackets and shades giving the rock giants a run for their money, maybe this is more Celtic Underground than Velvet. Either way, it’s impressive.

The Era

Coming recommended, Samuel Nicholson’s set didn’t disappoint. Imagine if you will a vocal sprinkled with the darkness of Nick Cave over a rich base of Wilson Picket playing rock songs and you’re some way there. Contorted dance moves and expressions make the overall experience a compelling one – an eclectic addition to the line-up.

Penultimate act at BAad was Black Fondu, a ‘one man and his laptop’ grime artist. Full of energy and high tempo mixes, his set was meticulously planned and presented.

top: Samuel Nicholson
bottom: Black Fondu

There’s nothing like seeing a band play their home city. Add to that the best live band around by some distance and the fact that their home city has a fierce beauty and culture, and you have the perfect closing set for a remarkable display of talent throughout the day. Watching VLURE play over the last few years, it was inevitable from the start that their audience would grow, and seeing them filling bigger venues is testament not just to the music but their unwavering DIY work ethic. There’s no doubt that everything they do is from the heart, every piece of production chiselled until it’s flawless, every performance set to maximum intensity. Much anticipated new tunes dropped into their setlist effortlessly and the shared adrenaline in the room was palpable. The ‘crowd surfing is dangerous’ sign had no chance – once again outshining all challengers, VLURE remain very firmly the band at the top of the live music tree.