Gig review: Zoey Van Goey / Kid Canaveral

HOW indie are Kid Canaveral? Indie enough to have released a single, Smash Hits, about every indie boy’s nightmare of falling for the fit girl who doesn’t appreciate your refined, esoteric tastes. This Edinburgh-based band’s set was indie and proud, with ringing guitar lines, catchy tunes and all-round bouncy verve. But they had competition from the headliners.

So in this amiable meeting of Scottish indie minds, just how indie are Zoey Van Goey? Very…sort of. Hailing broadly from the Belle & Sebastian school of Glaswegian whimsy, their set unfurled as expected – with wit, perception, sweetness, light and instrument-swapping – until the lone trumpeter showed up.

This was Gav Johnson, aka grnr, one of several artists who have remixed Zoey Van Goey tracks for a free EP available on the door, and his subsequent manning of laptop and electronic devices propelled the second half of the show in a glitchy direction the band were only too happy to embrace.

From here, the set moved up a gear with an electro-funk interlude with full band choreography which brought the house down. The message, as Zoey Van Goey launched into their encore cover of Camper Van Beethoven’s indie-rite-of-passage Take The Skinheads Bowling was clear: more beats and more moves please.