An oddly front-loaded week, this one. Monday alone gives you three things worth leaving the house for, which is not how Mondays usually go, and by Sunday the small rooms are still going while the big ones have packed up. The Windmill is open four of the seven nights and nothing there costs more than seven quid.
The pick, if you only manage one: untitled (halo) play two nights in Brixton and the second has already sold out. Failing that, BODEGA in the 100 Club basement on Tuesday is the sort of booking that room was built for.
Monday 14 September
untitled (halo) — The Windmill, Brixton
Shoegaze, and a lot of it. The band have a self-titled debut album announced and have taken two consecutive nights here to mark it; Tuesday has gone, so Monday is the one still available. The Windmill’s low stage and lower ceiling turn this kind of guitar music into weather rather than sound, which is the correct way to hear it. Doors 7.45pm, £7. Tickets · Event details
Hana Stretton + WOOM — Grand Junction, Paddington
Stretton is touring her new album tiarn, and she has picked the right room for it: Grand Junction is a converted church at St Mary Magdalene’s, all height and reverb, where songs built around space get to actually use some. WOOM open, and are worth arriving for rather than propping up the bar. Doors 7.30pm, on at 8pm, £15. Tickets · Event details
Nella + Envie + French Toast — The George Tavern
Three bands on Commercial Road for eight and a half pounds, with Nella topping the bill. The George has never once tried to look like anywhere other than what it is, which is most of its charm, and bills like this are the reason to keep an eye on it. Doors 7.30pm, £8.50. Tickets · Event details
Tuesday 15 September
BODEGA — The 100 Club
The New York band’s records run on repetition, dry wit and a drum machine that refuses to let up, and a basement is exactly what that does best. The 100 Club has been putting bands on under Oxford Street since 1942 and remains the right size for a group this wiry — close enough that the rhythm section feels like it is standing next to you. 7.30pm, £22. Tickets · Event details
Roxanne de Bastion — Sebright Arms
A full-band headline set of entirely new material, played in a cellar under a Hackney pub that holds 133 people. If the new songs land, you will have heard them roughly four feet from the person who wrote them, which is a fair trade for a Tuesday. Over-18s, 7pm, £22. Tickets · Event details
Wednesday 16 September
Jenny Sturgeon & M G Boulter — Green Note, Camden
Two writers working the same seam from opposite ends of the country: Sturgeon’s songs come out of Shetland, Boulter’s out of the Essex estuary, and they share the bill rather than splitting it into headliner and support. Green Note seats about sixty and, crucially, nobody talks through the quiet bits. Doors 7pm, 8.30pm start, £18. Tickets · Event details
Thursday 17 September
Sydenham High Road + Asandia + Crow — The Windmill, Brixton
Three bands, seven pounds, no obvious filler slot. This is the Windmill’s bread and butter and the reason the place has outlasted venues four times its size — turn up for the opener, because more often than not that is who the room has filled up for by the time the headliner goes on. Doors 7.45pm, £7. Tickets · Event details
Friday 18 September
Daily J — Bush Hall
Indie-psych from New Zealand, a very long way from home, in one of the prettiest rooms west London has. Bush Hall’s chandeliers and high ceiling do something generous to warm, wandering guitar pop, and the sightlines are better than anywhere else at this capacity. 7pm. Tickets · Event details
Saturday 19 September
MPTL Microplastics + Volk Soup + Mabel Clarke + Kiss Gem Burn — The Windmill, Brixton
Four acts for six pounds at the noisier end of south London. Go in knowing none of the names on the poster and there is a decent chance you leave with one you will be repeating at people for the next six months. Doors 8pm, £6. Tickets · Event details
The Vagaband — Green Note, Camden
Americana with folk-jazz edges and a soul streak, squeezed into a sixty-capacity room. A band with this many moving parts in a space this small is a faintly absurd proposition, which is precisely the appeal. All ages, so bring whoever. Doors 7pm, 8.30pm start, £16.50. Tickets · Event details
Sunday 20 September
Cello Sunday: Slow Cooked + Platonica Erotica + Alexander Painter + Filter Feeder — The Windmill, Brixton
A fiver for four acts who have plainly not agreed among themselves what sort of night this is, which is the best possible way to finish a week of gigs. Early enough that you will still be in bed at a reasonable hour on a Sunday, too. Doors 7.30pm, £5. Tickets · Event details
Playing something next week? Send it over via the contact form — dates, doors, price and a ticket link all help.
