Tonight sees four incredibly noisy bands take to the stage in the Cluny’s main venue; we arrive slightly late but in time for main tour support God Damn.

From the off their brooding ferocity is made quite clear and we’re certain we are going to be deaf come the curfew.

Ploughing through a breathtaking set, we’re left aghast at the sheer power and strain that the PA is being put through, and it comes as little surprise that all of the bands can be heard as clear as day outside the venue. ‘Silver Spoon’ is a highlight of God Damn's set; brilliant lyrics coupled with relentless riffs and huge drums.

With ears sufficiently ringing, we prepare for the Hawk Eyes onslaught we're about to be subjected to. We know we’re in for a treat tonight, and as the four-piece take to the stage, the crowd draws in ever closer, the opening riffs ringing out through the venue, the volume even louder than before.

Yet we quickly settle into this barrage of heavy riffs and shouted vocals, the sharp bursts of power are mind blowing. Not only that, but they seem like genuinely approachable people. What’s often lacking now is decent stage banter, yet Hawk Eyes seem to have honed theirs perfectly, their patter full of daft stories and prime numbers.

Tracks off the new album go down incredibly well, and though there's little deviation from tried and tested format of earlier material, it proves that their own trademarked brand of intricate metal is alive and well. Tonight is testament to both that, and to writing phenomenal songs; musically they’re unbelievable. so few bands are this tight.

‘Die Trying’ is a huge highlight this evening, it's ferocious, it's hard, it's riff-laden and it's just breathtaking. And, like so many other tracks n their set, it tears the roof off the venue. It's been a long while since The Cluny experienced a pummelling like this.

As Hawk Eyes close out their set we exit the venue, our faces suitably melted and our hearing hanging on by a whisker. We cannot commend Hawk Eyes enough. Metal and hardcore at its best.  

Arriving just in time to catch the support act ahead of  headliners at the Barrowlands Ballroom, Port Isla set the bar high for Kodaline as their world tour kicks off here in Glasgow. With their well crafted harmonies and folk melodies as well as their catchy riffs and walking basslines, the lads from Norwich don’t miss a trick to get the early arriving, sold-out gathering on side.

Having already smashed BBC Introducing and made fans at Glastonbury last year, it's great to see them perform their knock out tracks like ‘Steamroller’ and ‘In The Long Run’ before delivering their performance of the night with ‘Better Love’.

One big applause only becomes another bigger one until the reason everyone turned out finally took to the stage. With Port Isla having lifted everyone’s spirits early, Kodaline were only left with the task of shouting “Glasgow” before breaking out with synth-driven ‘Ready’ from their new album Coming Up For Air.

With Garrigan instrument free for the opener, it’s not long before the mandolin and harmonica are the first instruments to be pulled from his arsenal as they followed on with yester-years hit single ‘Love Like This’. New album highlight ‘Unclear’ does enough to confirm that the new tracks are translating very well to the live setting. The song is underpinned by Vinny May’s recreation of the bodhran sound on drums and with the crowd stepping up in the absence of the choir, the darkened ballroom was soon alight with Garrigan’s minions and their phone torch lights.

Both new and debut album tracks got their lion’s share of the set list with crowd pleaser ‘High Hopes’ raising the roof in the middle of the set once more.  Halfway through and already fast becoming a treat to see Kodaline in this comparatively intimate space, there were still a few new songs to come. Carefully slotting them between more debut album favourites, it became quite instructive how the band have developed since then with four of the final five tracks before the encore being taken from Coming Up For Air.

Piano track ‘Love Will Set You Free’ closed the first act of the performance before they re-emerged for their encore to play the notable exclusion ‘Honest’ before turning the lights off after sing-a-long ‘All I Want’. By the end of the night, the crowd had been whipped up into frenzy whether wallowing in melancholia or outdancing and outsinging the Irish quartet.

Despite the ballads, the show could never take a kicking for their absence of big tunes, with Steve Garrigan seemingly being able to play the crowd as well as any of his instruments, Kodaline managed to make everything fit tonight. At moments it was sparse & atmospheric, then chanting and bouncing. Maybe Kodaline had found what they were looking for when starting the tour in Glasgow as drummer Vinny May said “Barrowland in March last year, was such a mental night and a great venue”.

In a world where a band could be quite easily forgotten and labelled as landfill indie, The Wave Pictures are here to breathe a real energy back into British music. This evening sees them taking to the stage at a sold out Cumberland Arms, the tiny backroom rammed to capacity and with an added film crew, expectations are high.

From a personal point of view getting to see The Wave Pictures has been something of an arduous task, every time they’ve dropped into Newcastle I’ve always been otherwise engaged. This time nothing was going to stop me, arriving with no time to spare as one of the actors from their new music video takes to the stage to tell us what’s going to happen.

This was going to be interesting to say the least, the guys ploughing in to tracks from albums new and old. ‘I Could Hear the Telephone (3 Floors Above Me)’ is an early highlight from their new album Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon, as is the brilliant ‘Long Black Cars’ they have everyone in the room dancing and grinning profusely from the start.

As we watch on, the band are not far short of musical geniuses, whilst they may not win prizes for the most in depth lyrics there’s a real element of fun and excitement. What they also have is incredible talents with their instruments, particularly David Tattersall, his guitar playing is otherworldly at times.

Throughout they’re unbelievable for us a particular highlight is new track ‘Pea Green Coat’, the lyrics are utterly brilliant and like all of the others they have an insanely catchy hook. The Wave Pictures create the most brilliant indie pop songs; to us it’s hard to understand how these guys aren’t massive. Their songs have a way of working there way deep inside your head and staying there.

Tonight’s set does lean towards the new album with a number of the stand out tracks coming from it,. We’re certainly not complaining though as it's an astounding album. Its title track, a tongue twister in itself, is yet another earworm, which we find ourselves humming for hours after.

The band are also such humble characters; unlike most they interact with the audience and appreciate our excitement. To such an extent where they’re willing to take audience requests. This also shows their incredible adaptability and talent. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing the wonderful Daniel Johnston and its plain to see that he has been an inspiration to these guys (and yes we’re aware of their sets playing his songs).

However, The Wave Pictures have that similar sublime subject matter that is difficult to replicate well, yet these guys really pull it off. As the band close out with three covers of their favourite band Creedence Clearwater Revival, we make our exit high on excitement.

The Wave Pictures have restored our faith in live music with a pretty bleak and bland landscape it needs something a little different with a brightly coloured shirt to stand out above the rest and tonight The Wave Pictures shirts helped them to breath a little excitement and happiness into everyone in this room.

Kaiser Chiefs have taken to the road in support of their latest LP, Education, Education, Education & War and tonight sees them land in Newcastle with their huge show, but first, the small matter of Public Service Broadcasting.

On first glance, we’re struck by how the band has grown since we last saw them. Thankfully, though, that is the only thing that has changed and not only are they back with a whole clutch of new songs, they also have a few extra members in tow too. They’ve not lost any of their charm, the brilliant, sample driven inter-song banter is as on point as ever.

Their set is filled with brilliant tracks from the now classic ‘Theme From PSB’ and 'Night Mail' go down particularly well. As well as new single ‘Gagarin’ that is quite a bit funkier than their previous output whilst still retaining their original style and brilliance. We were really unsure as to where they could after such a phenomenal first album but they’ve certainly pulled it off based on ‘Gagarin’. We’re already on a high, even before the Kaiser Chiefs have set foot on the stage, but as the arena is filled with smoke, we hear the first bars of ‘The Factory Gates’.

The smoke clears as the crowd go wild for Ricky and his musketeers, Wilson appearing to be in rather visceral form as he bounds around the stage thrusting his mic stand toward the crowd.

Its not long before he’s hanging over the barrier, goading the crowd who gladly oblige jostling for the frontman's attention. The newer tracks provoke just as emphatic a reaction as the older ones. With ‘Everything is Average Nowadays’ and ‘Na Na Na Na Naa’ featuring early on, alongside the brilliant ‘Cannons’ and ‘Ruffians on Parade’.

As a live band its hard to fault the Kaiser Chiefs in any way, it could be said that they lost their way with albums three and four, yet their latest offering is a real return to form. To our surprise they play little known track ‘Team Mate’ from their debut LP “Employment,” perhaps one of our favourite Kaiser Chiefs songs as its something completely different to what you would expect from these indie rockers.

The latter part of the bands set is made up of the early hits, and who could blame them really with tracks like ‘I Predict a Riot’ and the infamous ‘Ruby’ provoking mass crowd participation. Setting the arena alight, Ricky Wilson’s showmanship is second to none and the rest of the band are brilliant musicians themselves, some may think this is a little too clinical, but we’d beg to differ.

Unlike so many bands these guys are professional and have a goal to put on an epic show and tonight, that’s exactly what they do and Ricky is quick to try and dispel any overly professional atmosphere anyway. The Ask Peanut segment, producing a fair few laughs and allowing someone else from the band to take centre stage in the process, if only for a short while.

They also find the time to throw in a cheeky cover of The Who’s 'Pinball Wizard', which goes down a treat this evening. The band close out their set though with arguably their biggest hit ‘Oh My God’ to top off what has been a brilliant evening, which proves new material is just as exciting as anything from their earlier albums.