Hinterland Festival, Glasgow, 2010

April the 3rd saw the Hinterland Festival return to various venues strewn around Glasgow for another year - this time reduced from two days to only the one. It seemed like no-one really knew it was on this time round, which was a shame, as I realised there was a whole host of quality acts which were on the way to being established in their respective underground circles.

Instead of running about between the different places, I confined myself to one or two with the bands that I found more interesting. That’s one of the strengths of these type of multi-venue-one-city festivals - that you can choose to have a full night of music and clubbing afterwards, or just settle down in one spot to see what’s on offer. I wasn’t feeling the alcohol-fuelled stumble around the city after a big night previous, so I was happy to be lazy tonight.

Whilst elsewhere there were delights such as French Wives, British Sea Power and the Spectrals, the Admiral Bar is where I set up camp for the majority, with the three bands on there taking my fancy - Glasgow’s own Kitty the Lion being the first. Coming as the creation of one Anna Meldrum - a dark haired young girl who was doing the rounds at some of the smaller bars and tents at the likes of the Indian Summer Festival back in 2007 with just her voice and acoustic guitar.

All that time plugging away has served her well, with the unassuming folky music going down well with what was to be the biggest crowd pulled in of the evening. Whilst obviously having the technical ability, it felt as if the band could just as easily have been playing round a campfire than on a festival stage - there was no pretence or ceremony which can usually be associated with that type of music - as if all those in tweed and playing strange instruments are in on some big joke that none of the rest of us understand.

Coming back to the whole Scottish accented singing minefield, you might think of the likes of Amy MacDonald - which, as I’ve said before, just doesn’t sit very well with me - as if it’s almost put on for effect. Anna’s voice was totally lacking that though, and had a gentle feel that you couldn’t help warming to. By the look of things, if you go to a festival in Scotland this summer, you might bump into these guys - check them out whilst you quaff some beer.

With a name like Bleech, it’s not surprising that Nirvana might spring to mind when listening to the Londoners next to grace the stage. Speaking to Pulled Apart By Horses before the show confirmed that they were good though, so I hope it’s not a dis-service to the female fronted trio to draw comparisons with Hole.. A more British, 80s punk-infused Hole, but that sort of feisty female arrogance that Courtney Love is famous for none the less. You can download their single for free as of the 5th of April on their Myspace. They also had the nifty idea of leaving empty CD cases around, with the idea that you would download the track and burn it yourself. I personally thought this was a pretty smart ploy, but the guy next to me seemed convinced it was just a ‘skinflint cheat’s way out’ - hmm. You can decide for yourself on that one.

Our favourite bearded folks from the south - Pulled Apart By Horses - were to round off the evening to a fairly disappointingly small assembled mass. Maybe it was because we were in one of the further venues out, but then a 10 minute walk isn’t that bad is it? There was a positive orgy of photographers swarmed around crazed frontman Tom as he fell and bashed his way around those who’d turned up. There might not have been many of them in the crowd, but they definitely were glad they had made the effort by the time the set was over.
  

More photos from Hinterland fest here.