Music review: The Great Eastern, various venues, Edinburgh

The Great Eastern, various venues, Edinburgh ****

Six months after its previous, pandemic-postponed outing in Edinburgh, multi-venue music festival The Great Eastern was back on the Southside. Sadly the rarely-seen King’s Hall wasn’t in use this time, but with the Queen’s Hall and four stages at nearby Summerhall, there was plenty of room for nearly 30 artists.

Earlier sets included familiar local names like Modern Studies and Hailey Beavis, with Kathryn Joseph opening the Queen’s Hall in the evening. In the main Dissection Room bar at Summerhall, Anne B Savage played songs for sparse vocals and solo electric guitar, including a cover of Nick Drake’s Place to Be, while in the Gallery café space downstairs London’s Deep Tan were her polar opposite, a trio of women who play jerkily irresistible punk songs reminiscent of the Slits, about things like deepfake revenge porn and the "furry” subculture.

There was no obvious headliner, no single band which everyone had to see, but probably the most well-attended show was by low-key Leicestershire indie rock group the Wave Pictures. With more than two decades of recording history behind them, their set was energetic but wistful.

Indie-rock ensembles were an ongoing feature, including young Brighton group Porridge Radio, whose songs from their new album Waterside, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky are lovelorn and lo-fi, and Scotland’s own Joy Hotel, fronted by Morgan “Emme” Woods, a soulful, ‘70s-style rock group whose lack of kitsch was appealing. In the Main Hall at Summerhall, Dan “Withered Hand” Willson took his first opportunity in a while to play new music.

It's a festival most recommended to fans of guitar music, although some of the highlights came where it split from this style. London’s trio of Comet is Coming affiliates Soccer96 played the Queen’s Hall like a jazz-infused version of kosmiche rock band Neu!, infused with the spirit of ‘90s house music.