LeithLate

Various venues, Leith, June 28th 2012
4 stars
On a rare evening of summer sun, for one night only, Leith Walk itself 
became a little piece of live art promenade theatre it's sort of always 
been. From Whitespace and Superclub in Gayfield Square at the top to 
Henderson Halls in South Leith Parish Church at the left of the bottom, 
some nineteen largely bespoke venues from the Windsor Buffet to Oscar's Alterations, 
Leith Walk Barber's Salon and beyond played host to a cavalcade of live 
music and pop-up exhibitions that fused a civic and social experience 
with an artistic one to expand the aesthetics of community spirit in 
the best sense of that much overused phrase.

Individual events were sometimes rough and not always ready, but in 
their willingness to experiment with form, content and circumstance, 
facilitated an explosion of noisy life that captured a sense of what's 
going on artistically in Leith – and indeed Edinburgh – away from the 
city's more august institutions and designated cultural quarters. The 
sound may have been a mess for much of the after-show party headlined 
by Remember Remember's mighty Steve Reich for indie kids routine, but 
seeing the multitude of chit-chatting auteurs, rogues, vagabonds and 
other creative types in the same room makes you realise what a glorious 
playground the neighbourhood's become. This was the city's real 
avant-garde out in force.

The List, July 2012

ends