“The gig pretty much started and ended with people dancing on the tables.” For excitement, innovation and a real joy in live music, come with our guest blogger, BBC’s  Ally McCrae, to some of his favourite Glasgow haunts…  

Glasgow is rammed full of live music venues, so for someone who spends his life hunting out the newest and most exciting artists, the city does not make it a hard job. For me, experiencing live music is about the audience as much as the musicians; it’s all about the people you are with, sharing the unity and excitement that only watching live music in front of your very own eyes can bring. Glasgow is a perfect place to experience that excitement, because on the whole it’s people are bloody friendly – here’s a few of my highlights.

United Fruit @ The Captains Rest September 2011 (Yip, I’m one of the topless ones) Photo by Stella Wan

That photo was taken in the Captains Rest, an awesome bar and restaurant in Great Western Road, in Glasgow’s West End; a tiny basement venue which is home to an incredible sound system and even more incredible burritos.

The reason we were topless? This was a homecoming show of a thunderous post-rock 4-piece, United Fruit, who’d been on a European tour. During the last track they threw four drum kits into the crowd and all the lads lost their tee shirts with excitement at their return home. Standard!

I love the smaller venues, not just because those are my usual haunts, but because they are the breeding grounds – where the excitement is, where the innovation happens and where the real joy in live music can be found.

Loosely Speakin’ Battle Rap @ 13th Note Café. December 2011. Photo by Euan Robertson

The 13^th Note in the Trongate hosts a huge range of live music, covering every genre imaginable, while serving the finest vegan fare available upstairs. I recently judged a rap battle on a chilly Saturday afternoon. Aye, you heard me right – Scottish hip-hop.  It is one of the most thriving scenes at the moment here. If you are lucky you could time a visit to when Loosely Speaking are hosting one of their events, doing really good things and bringing folk together while displaying some incredible talent – if you manage to catch one of these, you will learn a lot of ‘Glasgow Patter’.

For the uninitiated, Glasgow Patter is everyday speech used by many in the city. For me it is something that sums up my hometown best; it’s a dialect with often-cheeky colloquialisms capturing the Glaswegian attitude to life in general. It may be ‘pure Baltic man’ (cold) or always ‘dreich’ (wet) but we don’t care, we’ll still have a good party.  There are so many smaller, independent venues and bars to experience that attitude and the music that goes with it. They all go hand in hand.

So to Bar Bloc (pictured below) in Bath Street; a totally independent, free, live music venue open 7 nights a week until 3am with a colossal mix of music, nights and drinks. I don’t have time to go into stories about the people I’ve met in there!

The photo is from a gig I put on there which pretty much started and ended with people dancing on the tables as we put acts on in every spot possible around the venue. They were cool with that because, well, no matter what you do, Bloc will have seen crazier.  From super-secret shows of well known Scottish acts, to touring French electro bands you have never heard of, to their very own in-house orchestra (they practice on a Monday) – Bloc is a must visit in the very heart of the city; rough around the edges yes, but a haven of chaos in a street full of bland, soul-less bars it will always be.

So there you have it, a tiny selection from a city which displays a huge spectrum of music in a host of awesome venues, filled with the most excitable, passionate, vocal and honest music fans: Glaswegians. Go exploring and if you get lost, just ask someone for a tip, I have only mentioned a few. Enjoy the music and the patter.