With Rev Magnetic, Skloss, Tristwch y Fenywod, Prolapse, Snapped Ankles, Grufff Rhys and Lankum
Kelvingrove Bandstand, 16 August 2025
After a few weeks of sold out shows at the Kelvingrove Bandstand, the curtain was finally drawn on this year’s Summer Nights at the Bandstand with the Big City 2025 Festival.
One benefit of events like Big City is it gives an opportunity, across several hours, to watch and listen to bands that you are either vaguely aware of or possibly never heard of. The line-up for this year’s event certainly offered up a number of newbies for me to the live experience.
Rev Magnetic
Opening up the event, to a sparse yet enthusiastic crowd, was Rev Magnetic, one of several projects involving Luke Sutherland, one being a multi-instrumentalist in the touring band for the festival’s curators Mogwai.
A rich mix of Shoegaze and Dream Pop music rang out across the amphitheatre for their thirty-minute set. A combination of beautifully crafted songs, crisp vocals and the perfect balance between the guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, was the perfect opening for what would prove to be an eclectic mix of musical styles.
A band that has happily been added to the ‘Let’s see them again’ list.
Skloss
Unlike Rev Magnetic, I was aware of Skloss and had been playing their debut release The Pattern Speaks on the way to the event. A Glasgow/Texas duo in both music and marriage, Karen Skloss on drums and Sandy Carson on guitar provided the noise fest that I had anticipated given Mogwai’s fingerprint on the bands playing.
Over the course of their (way too short) set they created a wall of sound so hypnotic it was difficult to reconcile that there were only two people on the stage. With the steady tempo created by Karen, who also provided muted vocals, the focus of attention was placed on Sandy who meandered around the stage while weaving an intricate pattern of glorified noise from his guitar.
The title track from their album The Pattern Speaks, is a succinct summary of their set. The sound pattern created rises steadily until it explodes into your ears and literally speaks volumes to you.
The first time I’ve witnessed Skloss live. It will not be the last. While other acts followed on the day, Skloss were the undoubted highlight for me, as close to Mogwai themselves as any other act on the day.
Tristwch y Fenywod
To confirm the UK wide exposure of bands this year, Welsh trio Tristwch y Fenyord took to the stage and in what looked like a witches coven, they gathered centre stage, had a minimalist ceremony to psyche themselves and the crowd up for what was to follow. They then proceeded to beguile us with some mystical music with Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth on lead vocals and zither particularly the centre of attention. The gothic sounding music had similarities to Dead Can Dance about it and definitely held a spell over those watching.
With bass and drums to complete the musical output, the trio provided a set that was different, unique and memorable on the day.
Mini festivals like Big City provide opportunities to witness something that might not be on your radar, and I’d certainly not avoid seeing them again if they were on a line-up with artists I’m maybe a bit more familiar with.
Prolapse
One of those bands if anyone asked, I’d say yeah, I’ve heard of them……I think?
In truth, the set at the Bandstand suggested that I’d maybe misheard about them, as they weren’t what I had expected. Musically interesting with a performance that was as intense as it was amusing.
Mick Derrick and Linda Steelyard were the key protagonists during their allotted 30-minute slot packing in a fair number of songs that mixed the old with the new.
With vocals that were as much about shouting the words as singing them, twisting, turning, bending, skipping to the music that surrounded them they both formed a formidable duo.
At times it seemed the music was incidental to what was being ‘sung’ and acted out. Yet everything was held together, everyone on stage seemed to know their part. There’s certainly nothing cute about Prolapse as they seek to smack you between the ears with their tales.
Big City had again identified a band who would be different. Who would entertain in their own inimitable way. In that respect Prolapse succeeded and that’s all you can ever ask for.
Snapped Ankles
The only musical act that I’d seen before, Snapped Ankles, have their own unique selling point. Like Daft Punk, Slipknot, Kiss and maybe even the Blue Man Group, before them, the four members hide their faces behind what can best be described as tree like masks.
Their show is as much performance art as music with a blend of post-punk and techno added to the mix. A mix that for the first time in the day had people up dancing.
When the technology eventually all kicked into place, there was some real energy coming from the four members of the band. No guitars or bass. Synthesisers, drums with even the vocals sucked through a gizmo and back out again.
The songs were catchy. But were they memorable? The performance was entertaining. But how would that translate in the future?
Snapped Ankles fitted the bill perfectly for the Big City line-up. They added something to the whole event and were unlike any other, which was a consistent aspect of the festival. They are definitely on the radar to see again and find out how the above questions have been answered.
Gruff Rhys
Other than Mogwai themselves, Gruff Rhys was the one familiar name on the line-up when the gig was announced, and tickets bought.
With the band all dressed in white overalls, there might have appeared to be a synergy somewhere between Snapped Ankles and themselves, though difficult to imagine what that might have been.
Musically there was a world of difference between the high energy Snapped Ankles and the laid back set delivered by a man who led Super Furry Animals at the height of their musical career in the mid-1990s, a period in time when many of the audience who by this time had almost filled the Bandstand, were in their own prime.
There appears genuine warmth to everything Gruff delivers during the set, much of the words were sung in Welsh, a language that is a joy to listen to and the band were, in the main discrete, enabling all the attention to fall on the main man himself.
As a final ‘act’, before he left the stage, he held up a number of printed cards, Bob Dylan like, seeking Applause, Louder applause! a Thank you, and finally The End.
He and his band are ones potentially seen supporting, or even headlining, in the near future and at least in a supporting role, is one that I’d happily arrive early to watch and listen to again.
Lankum
If proof were ever needed that music, like other art forms – literature, films, art itself, etc. is all down to individual taste, then for me the final act that drew the curtain finally down on this year’s Summer Sessions was one that divided opinion.
As the last embers of sunlight fell onto The Bandstand, Lankum took to the stage as headliners with almost everyone in the venue offering generous and loud applause, a sure sign that they had a sizeable following in the city.
Apart from the keyboard player and occasionally the drummer, all were seated with an array of acoustic or semi-acoustic instruments to deliver the folk-rock music that the audience were hoping for.
With the stage predominantly in a dark red haze, the individual members of the group were in part difficult to see though there was plenty of the craic between them.
Like all the acts that went before them on the day, they offered a different perspective on what music means to each and every one of us.
In summary
On a day where the music ebbed and flowed between high energy acts and those with a more restrained, calming influence it would be impossible for everyone to be in love with every single act.
For me Skloss were head and shoulders above the others, because that’s the style of music I like and regularly listen to while Snapped Ankles, Rev Magnetic and Prolapse are in the ‘To look out for in the future’.
It was a great day at the Kelvingrove Bandstand. The weather was warm and sunny. The food available was gorgeous and the music, in the main, hit the right spots.
Until 2026 and all the Summer Nights we might have there.
