The next month in music

There seems to be rather a lot of interesting live music in Manchester coming up, despite the fact that we are entering the traditionally slow summer season. Here’s my pick of the best stuff:

1. Antlers @ St Philip’s Church in Salford, Thursday 20 May:
Don’t know much about this band, I’m going with a fan, but always look forward to a gig in this venue. Seeing Hurts do their debut gig here was very special

2. Jesca Hoop @ Band on the Wall, Monday 24 May:
Seeing Jesca for the second time. She was mesmerising at the Deaf Institute, her songs are like a kind of wonderful soul-folk and she has quite a stage presence. Her ridiculously good-looking backing singers were crowd-pleasers last time as I remember. Her popularity is increasing rapidly, I would expect her to be pretty well-known by the end of the festival season



3. Dot to Dot Festival, various venues, all-day, Bank Holiday Monday 31 May:
Booked tickets for this before the line-up was announced, and the first batch of bands was a bit disappointing. Zane Lowe? But things are looking up, I’m especially looking forward to Wild Beasts, Beach House, Wolf Gang and Lissie – the latter’s EP I have has on repeat for a week or so, brilliant stuff. Booked the next day off work – for the best after a bank holiday all-day session.

4. Lau @ The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, Friday 4 June:
Bit out of the area this one, but actually surprisingly easy to get to – there are regular trains to and from Victoria, and it’s nice to have a change of scene. Lau won Best Group at the 2010 BBC2 Folk Awards, and have some beautiful, more traditional folk songs.

5. Ian Brown @ Platt Fields, 11 June:
Is anybody not going to this? Have taken the afternoon off work to fully enjoy the line-up. Only mildly looking forward to Ian Brown himself, but with the park-based fun starting at 4:30pm and UNKLE, A Certain Ratio, Mr Scruff and Now Wave DJs also on the line up, I’m anticipating it to be one of the events of the summer.

Reviews to follow!