Two concerts and two 1-day festivals in a week, including a stay at a friend’s place and at a hotel. Loads of acts to watch, loads of energy to expend, and loads of fun to be had. If all goes right...

National media pick up on the fact that Morrissey (playing in Tivoli, Utrecht) has ordained that no meat will be eaten in his vincinity. Said media especially seem to be concerned about the professional musicians that will be playing classical music in the same venue. How will anyone survive not eating meat for a day? Especially those who play Liszt.

In the comments section (note to self: never, ever read comment sections on these things) people are outraged. How dare a musician to tell a venue beforehand that it has to be a meatless venue for one day (they could have said no, if they wanted to...)! Guess at the core is the fact that we don’t like to be told what to do. Whatever the subject is. Probably says more about “our” God-like complex than Morrissey’s tbh (especially since loads of these commenting people all have the Divine and moral right at their side, so it seems). Though anyone who at age 55+ takes off his shirt and casually tosses it semi-naked into the audience might somewhere along the line have been inclined to develop one.

About 0.1% of those who complained about the singer’s demands were at the concert, btw. Which begs the question, why were all others giving a ----.

Morrissey’s voice has no age on it at all. The videos of animals being slaughtered get old pretty quickly though. My friend took off her glasses from her face and meat off her menu. So good day for Morrissey I suppose, despite his band’s best efforts to drown him out. When they don’t do that, like on the ol’ classic ‘Asleep’, concert is at its best.

St. Vincent is showing off her skills as the robotic hypnotic. Corny choreographs mix with rock and roll, theatrical dramatics with sexual innuendos, and all of that is connected together by Miranda July-esque short monologues about awkward conversations. And yes, some of those stories definitely qualify for that. Some are hilarious though. All need a bit more practice.

In the new Doornroosje venue (coat room still free. Best gesture ever) she starts with the pop, starting by hilariously miming the verb “running” on ‘Rattlesnake’ and ending the trifecta with ‘Digital Witness’ and ‘Cruel’. It seems like the focus of the rest of the show is on the rocking, the rolling, and the having fun with the crowd and her bandmates s. The latter who, iron faced, do all the corny Supremes-meet-android moves along with her. Her voice is awesome, her songs are intellectual, and the whole performance is jaw dropping.

The new Catch festival is in the new Tivoli building. About four rooms are in play... if you can unlock them! (It’s a game, honey!) It’s an Escher-esque maze out there, with loads of staircases always seeming to lead you to somewhere else. The room called Cloud Nine, by the way, is quite the ascension, and like going to Heaven indeed takes a lifetime. With that said, because everything is so wide apart, it never feels crowded, convoluted, or congested.

Nils Frahm has set up about fourteen-and-a-half synthesizers. In the encore he plays two of the three at the same time, reconstructing the battle-of-the-Ducks in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? single-handedly. He piles on layer after layer of rhythmic piano playing, the songs so expertedly crafted you just have to admire them. His piano playing; his hands move just so incredibly fast. If he types that way, when I am genius, famous, and 70, must remember to ask him to ghostwrite for me. If he’s available, of course.

Kindness puts the fun in funk. Anytime the singer tells an anecdote about what his band was up to last night (they apparently hijacked a jam session at a local cafe) you know it is about dancing and having fun. Especially if that anecdote turns into a rendition of some old dancefloor classic or another (memory is hazy, but might have been Womack & Womack’s ‘Teardrops’, or some Whitney tune with “dancefloor” in it.); just so amazingly fun. Obviously loads of Kindness’ tracks make it onto the setlist as well, both old and new. It ends with about a ten minute Chicago House tribute, which has the band dancing as hard (if not harder) than the audience.

Years & Years, pre-show, stand on stage, and it reminds me of the famous Picasso tableau Band-Doesn’t-Know-How-To-Fix-Technical-Issue, painted around 1904 in his famous Blue period. Ten minutes too late the band starts, and certainly many youngsters have gathered to catch a glimps of the charismatic Olly Alexander, who also happens to have quite a voice. Break out potential is certainly there, with some lovely singles like ‘Real’ and ‘Desire’. Live ‘Take Shelter’ actually disappoints, being my favorite in recording, and though undoubtedly inches away from stardom, there is some youth to be detected in the performance. So the existential question is, do you kill off your own youth for a mature sound and a full feature in next month’s Hit Parade?

Youth is also on display at the London Calling Festival in Paradiso. The Mispers have some nice hooks, and the two guitarists (one acoustic, one electric) throw in some nice riffs. The vocals no one can actually hear, which is too bad, as a couple of songs definitely show some promise. More than Fever the Ghost does. The singer comes on in a sort of beekeeper outfit, which is splendid! Except, you can’t hear him and it looks ridicilous. The band keeps throwing out so.much.noise. that it becomes hard to find the actual song in there. The sound cleans up as the gig goes on though, reaching its peak after the show has ended.

Josef Salvat reminds me of the New Girl episode where Smith pretends he is one of the Mitt Romney sons. Salvat is the singing one, and he sure has the vocal skills. The songs are pretty decent too, though the ones with just him and the piano do drag the whole thing down a tad. His moves does make my mind wander about a visibly big schism between electro performers and the kids at the Catch festival and the more indie rock-ish audience and bands at London Calling. The electro kids & artists can motherblimey dance! And the others give it a valiant effort. It’s White Men Can Dance vs. White Men Look Awkward As They Attempt to Dance. Subcultures eh, gotta love ‘m.

Spoon though. Blimey, Spoon. They’re just the blueprint for any American indie-rock band, they know how to do it right. Sure, the start of the performance is marred by technical issues. Britt Daniel asks if we can hear him. That is tech code for turn-up-the-bleeping-sound. When they arrive at the middle part and come up with the trio of ‘Summon You’, ‘Turn My Camera On’, and ‘Inside Out’ you are reminded what a good band sounds like.

A concert by them is like playing a collectible card game and buying a booster pack. I got some awesome doubles, but also loads of cards I didn’t have yet! Still missing some in my collection, though hopefully one day I’m gonna catch them all! Oh yeah, and Paradiso, buy an airconditioning system for Heaven’s sake! After all the gigs in the new venues in Nijmegen and Utrecht, being in Paradiso makes me all hot and bothered, and not in the Disco kind of way! Fainting was never so enticing an option.

After a three-year absence from Scotland, The Antlers return to Glasgow as part of their tour promoting third album Familiars.

The Brooklyn trio's performance is a great representation of their music, beautifully mesmerising and almost cathartic. Focused mostly on their latest release, the band kick start their performance with 'Palace'. Similar to most of their set, the live version of the opener is elongated with slightly different arrangements, giving it even more hypnotizing effect. And hypnotized we are.

Silberman, Lerner and Cicci deliver an outstanding performance and they could not have asked for a better venue. Oran Mor allows for a kind of intimacy between the act and the audience that is almost impossible to attain elsewhere. Although throughout their performance the band say just a few words, the atmosphere of closeness and a kind of bond between the trio and the public is not hard to notice.

During the encore the band seem to be more outspoken and even invite the audience to sing happy birthday to their tour manager (Glasgow born-and-bred). Even though this is the only act of any dialogue with the audience it is all that's needed. The music seems to be enough and Oran Mor quietly accepts a few 'thank you's' from Silberman, who is giving his best whilst fighting off a cold.

Even with a clear dominance of the most recent material, the band manage to squeeze in some of the crowd's favourites, such as 'No Widows' or 'I Don't Want Love'. However, some pre-Familiars fans might argue that the set list is not balanced enough since it does not include any singles from Hospice. The Antlers' last record offers an exceptionally long list of great songs though so deciding on the set-list must be a tough job for the band.

Appropriately for Halloween the Philadelphia based singer-songwriter Lizanne Knott casts a musical spell over her audience as she finishes her British tour at Lichfield Guilldhall.

Her latest musical project Hey Harley is a collaboration with the equally talented Bill Reveles, and their blended voices and guitar styles cover a lot of ground, from new age ambient to gospel, blues, and folk.

The duo play a set that's largely made up of their own quality songs, but they also find time for a number of covers. Although not household names, the duo have seen their songs feature in a number of top rating television programmes and films such as ‘True Blood’ and ‘Dawson’s Creek’. There's no-room within their compositions for solos or improvisation, but they took an almost painterly approach to their work, each note is carefully weighted to allow for the most impact, and their songs are largely of a narrative nature, ranging from tracks about parenthood to the environment.

Lizanne Knott’s, pure, clear pitched voice has made her a favourite with the Old Grey Whistle Test's Bob Harris, and the songs work on the radio, but in a room with the acoustic of The Guildhall, the songs have extra depth and lustre.

Starting with the hopeful, gospel tinged ‘Wonderful Day’ it's soon clear that we're in safe hands, and a life spent in concert halls has prepared the duo well. The economic situation is touched upon with ‘Die In This Town’ whilst the bluesy ‘Could Have Been My Man’ would have sounded at home on any mainstream blues album. Bill Reveles' first solo spot consists of the sad ballad ‘That’s the Way She Loves’whilst comedy song ‘Jesus or Elvis’ has its impact somewhat softened with the juxtaposition of a bed of minor chords though 1^st set closer ‘Carry You Home’, a song written for Lizanne Knott’s daughter, upholds a far deeper resonance.

Much of the same ground is covered in the second half, although at points to a far deeper level.

‘For Somebody’ and ‘Love Has Passed Me By’ were songs about the human condition and love lost, whilst Lizanne Knott gives full rein to the bluesy timbre of her voice during the traditional ‘Big Road’. The set closes with a full bodied reading of ‘Forgive Us’ a ballad that speaks of religion and redemption. Fittingly, a reading of Dylan’s ‘Knockin on Heaven’s Door’ is the encore, but a slightly different arrangement and shared vocal duties lifts it above the ordinary.

Kicking off with ‘Family Tree’ & ‘Modern Art’ from previous album Arabia Mountain, the Black Lips brought their Underneath The Rainbow show to a packed and very receptive Electric Circus just before Hallowe’en. Which explains the guy right at the front of the stage in the pumpkin helmet.

Having of late been surprised at the lack lustre nature of Edinburgh audiences tonight’s performance is strong enough to inspire scenes seldom seen since the closure of the much loved Venue – stage diving, crowd surfing, pole climbing & finally a full on stage invasion (forcing Jack Hines to remove a couple of punters lest he be squished).

Seemingly sponsored by Andrex, given the number of loo rolls being flung across the stage, the band took no time to whip the crowd into the seething mass that was required to birth the above mentioned interaction. Add to that their own balloons being bounced around all over the place and the atmosphere was ripe for raucous but good natured partying by all concerned.

Looking more clean-cut than when last seen three or four years ago in Glasgow, the quartet’s easy blending of Fifties attitude with punk from all eras saw later songs in the set (including ‘O Katrina’, recent single ‘Boys In The Wood’ and a slight tease of ‘Dirty Water’) successively meet with heartfelt cheers and resounding applause. Banter was in short supply but inter-city rivalry was stoked when the Glasgow crowd was unfavourably compared with tonight’s throng. This time though you could well believe that was no empty compliment.

True to the punk ethic there was no encore after they’d blasted through 60 minutes but all four of the guys were in evidence upon leaving the venue, engaging with passing fans & no doubt keen to try out a pub or two before closing time. If anyone in the city deserved a pint tonight it was them so fingers crossed they found plenty.