The Stool Pigeon

A successful eight year stint, it was announced back in February that T on the Fringe was no more. The T in question, Tennents, felt the month-long festival had run its course and consequently withdrew sponsorship.

Thankfully promoters DF didn’t give up on the idea, instead choosing to re-invent and re-brand the event as The Edge Festival. Just how this ‘new’ endeavour would be affected by the lack of big money backing soon became clear when the programme was published.

Gone were the stadium shows, and so too were the number of high-profile international acts. Instead, the focus shifted to emerging talent with a few crowd-pleasing names thrown into the mix to ensure numbers.

On paper it looked like a chance to unearth some previously hidden gems and to discover the next generation of Scottish bands. In reality, it was a decidedly hit and miss affair that, although not without some truly memorable nights, overall failed to dazzle.

One of the first bands hoping to leave their mark was London quartet Longview but due to malfunctioning equipment, songs that were found wanting and a real dearth of atmosphere, their rather lacklustre display proved less than enthralling. The same could be said of former Joseph K linchpin Paul Haig whose run-of-the-mill set provoked little reaction from the sparsest of crowds.

A couple of nights later, back at the Cabaret Voltaire, things finally picked up with the arrival of Stockholm’s Shout Out Louds. The quintet’s multi-layered brand of indie pop may have suffered early on due to muddy bass-heavy sound but, by a particularly joyous rendition of ‘The Comeback’, proceedings were pulled back on track, where they remained until a rousing encore of the aptly-named ‘Hurry Up Let’s Go’ brought their set to a close.

Twickenham folk popsters Noah And The Whale may have pulled a full house, but armed with songs that more often than not felt like background music, mustering any real enthusiasm for the four-piece was an effort. The one song of note, ‘Five Years Time’, did prove memorable but mainly due its opening riff’s similarity to Cornershop’s ‘Brimful of Asha’.

Of the four Scottish bands appearing at the Liquid Room the following night for a Your Sound Showcase, only one left its mark - Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers. The combo is the brainchild of Glasgow-based Ali Downer, an up-and-coming singer/songwriter with a knack for writing upbeat bluegrass-infused folk songs that can get a crowd moving, and Downer and his three-piece backing band did just that.

Performances from psychedelic dance trio Midnight Juggernauts, Clare and The Reasons and the effervescent Bombay Bicycle Club rounded off the inaugural Edge and ensured proceedings finished on a high. But with many of this year’s gigs feeling like fillers, it remains to be seen if we’ll be returning in 2009.

Special Mention

The Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit / Liquid Room

The chance to see two of Scotland’s best bands on the same bill was always going to be hard to resist so, not surprisingly, the Liquid Room was close to bursting for tonight’s appearance by The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit.

First up were Selkirk’s finest. Watching the Rabbit in full flight can be an intoxicating experience - the passion of their performances has the power to captivate an audience - and tonight it did just that. Energy radiated from the stage from start to finish, but felt especially euphoric on ‘Fast Blood’ and ‘The Modern Leper’.

A genuine spine-tingling moment was provided by the sublime ‘Poke’, sung a cappella, Hutchison’s vocal proving achingly fragile and truly transfixing, while set closer ‘Keep Yourself Warm’ succeeded in sparking the biggest sing-along of the night from the increasingly sweaty but happy crowd.

Like their bunny friends, The Twilight Sad perform with the kind of honesty most bands aspire to but seldom attain. Clad in black, and throttling his mic, James Graham delivered his darkly-lit lyrics with hypnotic, raw emotion. On ‘And It Would Darken The Memory’, that emotion exploded with volcanic force, Graham lost in a Twilight trance, screaming expletives as the guitar-generated chaos engulfed him.

But don’t think this is a one-man operation. Mark Devine’s pounding rhythms and Craig Orzel’s telling basslines provided the strongest of backbones over which guitarist Andy MacFarlane, a picture of stoic reserve, manufactured wave after wave of effect-laden guitar; sounds that were brutal but beautiful, visceral but still very much melodic.

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