Our top 5 acts from Tenement Trail 2023
Scotland’s festival for music discovery hosted 51 acts across eight venues in under ten hours.
Tenement Trail returned to Glasgow’s East End last Saturday, holding spotlight to new and local acts, and shaping the trajectory of the city’s music scene. After attending the event, we’ve compiled a list of five acts we found particualrly impressionable.
1. Soapbox
A friend of mine described the set as “emphatic jungle punk”. Their lead singer Tom hoped around the venue and into the mosh pits, experiencing the gig with his audience. On at the Barra’s Art and Design at 3.15pm, despite being an earlier act the band brought an energy that fermented through the day. They proved wrong a common misconception that punk is overdone and outdated, it just has to be tastefully revolutionised and made applicable to issues of the current day.
2. Man/Woman/Chainsaw
I never had any prior intentions to see this band but three separate people recommended them so I made the effort (to be honest I hadn’t even heard of them, but that’s the point of this festival). And I’m glad I did. A crazy array of sounds and genre blending, the product was something completely unique and interesting.
3. Danko
Danko understand how to put on a show and they’re good at stirring excitement in the crowd with their upbeat and catchy songs. I believe this was the first time they’ve played the main stage at the Barrowlands, it’s definitely the largest platform I’ve seen them take on, but the scale suited them and they easily adapted to the playing ground.
4. Swim School
I first heard of Swim School while hibernating in my bedroom during lockdown, and given I didn’t have many responsibilities or commitments to attend to at the time, spent many many hours streaming their music. Despite this long-winded obsession I only saw them live for the first time this year at TRNSMT back in July, though have seen them three or four times since. The band took over the Barrowlands Ballroom, which they informed us before the set was the first stage all three members would be playing for the first time together in their history, each of them having played in other groups before. They were heavy but soulful, enigmatic but self-assured, and gritty but theatrical.