A week that swings hard between whisper and roar. At one end there’s Gia Margaret playing her almost-silent piano music into EartH’s stripped-back theatre; at the other there are four-band bills at the Windmill going for a fiver and a doom band playing a record shop at lunchtime. Thursday is the night to clear your diary — three genuinely good shows across Islington, Hackney and the Mall — but the standout is Gia Margaret, whose records ask for a room that will actually shut up and listen, and who has finally been given one.
Wednesday 9 September
Drook + Sex Mask + Tummyavhe — The Windmill, Brixton
Six quid, three bands, doors at 7.45pm. This is the Windmill functioning exactly as it should: a midweek bill of bands most people haven’t heard yet, priced so that turning up on spec costs less than the bus home. Drook headline.
Jay Critch — Bush Hall
The Brooklyn rapper’s first London date in seven years, and he’s playing a 400-capacity Edwardian dance hall in Shepherd’s Bush with chandeliers and plaster mouldings. The mismatch is the appeal. Doors 7pm.
Tickets, from £18.50 · Event details
Thursday 10 September
Gia Margaret + Resavoir — EartH, Hackney
Gia Margaret spent years making guitar-and-voice records before a vocal injury pushed her towards instrumentals, and the piano music she’s made since is the better work by some distance — spare, patient, full of room tone. EartH’s theatre is one of the few London spaces where that will land properly. Fellow Chicagoans Resavoir open with their loose, brass-led jazz, so get there early. Doors 7.30pm.
Tickets, from £22.50 · Event details
Renny Conti + Symbol Soup + Mabel Clarke — The Lexington, Islington
Conti writes soft-edged, unhurried guitar pop that sounds like it was recorded in a bedroom in the good way rather than the apologetic one. Two London supports worth the early door: Symbol Soup and Mabel Clarke. Doors 7.30pm in the 200-cap room above the bar.
Tickets, from £15 · Event details
GHOSTWOMAN + Desert Liminal — ICA, The Mall
Evan Uschenko started GHOSTWOMAN on self-dubbed cassettes in an abandoned Alberta farmhouse, which tells you most of what you need to know about the texture. The fourth album, Welcome to the Civilized World, is scratchier and angrier than the ones before it. Chicago’s Desert Liminal support, and Bird on the Wire are promoting. 7.30pm.
Tickets, £27.04 · Event details
Friday 11 September
Green Lung in-store — Rough Trade East, Brick Lane
An odd and very welcome slot: London’s folk-horror doom merchants playing the shop floor at 1pm on a Friday. Two hundred people, a short set, and those riffs at conversational distance. Take a long lunch.
Tickets, from £15.75 · Event details
Maya Ongaku + Sophia Hansen-Knarhoi — MOTH Club, Hackney
Maya Ongaku are from Enoshima, an island just off the coast south of Tokyo, and they make drifting, sun-bleached psychedelia that never quite resolves. MOTH Club’s gold-tinsel back room is about the most sympathetic setting they could ask for. Sophia Hansen-Knarhoi opens. Doors 7pm.
Tickets, from £18.70 · Event details
SLIME CITY + The Metatrons + Head Noise — The Lexington, Islington
Three bands, fifteen quid, doors at seven — a stacked Friday for anyone who’d rather start loud and finish early than queue for a club. SLIME CITY headline.
Tickets, from £15 · Event details
drive your plow + Running Standard + Lister Rider Home + Conn Thornton — The Windmill, Brixton
Four acts for a fiver. If you’ve been meaning to get back to Blenheim Gardens, this is the sort of bill that makes the trip south worth it — no headliner you’re obliged to have heard of, just a long evening of new bands. Doors 8pm.
Saturday 12 September
Sick On The Bus + The Backstreet Abortions + The Clubheads + kitchen lover — The Shacklewell Arms, Dalston
Sick On The Bus have been doing this since the late eighties and show no sign of stopping, and they’ve brought three more bands with them. The Shacklewell’s back room holds two hundred and will feel considerably fuller than that. Doors 7.30pm.
Tickets via DICE · Event details
Sunday 13 September
Re Teu + Daisy Jean Russell — The Lexington, Islington
The cheapest headline ticket of the week and a Sunday finish early enough to be no use as an excuse on Monday. Re Teu top the bill with Daisy Jean Russell opening. Doors 7.30pm.
Tickets, from £14.01 · Event details
Prices are the lowest advertised at the time of writing and usually include booking fees; doors times are as listed by the venue or promoter. Things move — check before you travel.
