Sonica 2015, Glasgow

SONICA 2015, GLASGOW Installations, music-sensitive light shows and a percussion/movie mash-up

Installations, music-sensitive light shows and a percussion/movie mash-up

Sometimes it’s visual art with a sonic slant; sometimes it’s music with a visual slant. Glasgow’s Sonica – created by producers Cryptic, now in its third year and bigger than ever – feels like a thoroughly modern festival, defying genre boundaries and instead focusing squarely on the intersection of the sonic and the visual. That might make some of its offerings hard to categorise, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Kevin Bridges, Hammersmith Apollo

KEVIN BRIDGES, HAMMERSMITH APOLLO Otherwise polished young stand-up gets irritated with the audience and stomps off

Otherwise polished young stand-up gets irritated with the audience and stomps off

Kevin Bridges, although only 28, has been performing comedy for 10 years. Strange to relate then, that he still gets rattled by hecklers (even friendly ones telling him he's awesome – “Relax, it's not a One Direction concert”) and that this otherwise excellent gig descended into acrimony with Bridges leaving the stage at the end clearly irritated.

The Legend of Barney Thomson

Robert Carlyle's debut as director is confident, and darkly comic

Its title may hint at exotic worlds – a Western, even – but Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut is anything but. Carlyle himself plays the title character, one of life’s losers (“haunted tree” being one of the more memorable descriptions we get of him) who’s barely getting by as a Glasgow barber until the story, and his own unplanned actions, pitch his mundane existence to another level altogether.

theartsdesk at the Cottier Chamber Project

THE ARTS DESK AT THE COTTIER CHAMBER PROJECT The three-week Glasgow chamber music festival is Scotland's answer to the Proms

The three-week Glasgow chamber music festival is Scotland's answer to the Proms

The Cottier Chamber Project is coming to feel increasingly like Glasgow’s answer to the Proms. If the Proms took place in a former church high on shabby-chic charm, that is. And if they ran for just three weeks. And only covered chamber music.

Donohoe, BBCSSO, Prieto, City Halls, Glasgow

DONOHOE, BBCSSO, PRIETO, CITY HALLS, GLASGOW Impressive, weighty Scottish debut by Brazilian conductor in Shakespeare-led programme

Impressive, weighty Scottish debut by Brazilian conductor in Shakespeare-led programme

Shock and Shakespeare were the two forces that powered a typically thoughtful programme from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. I said as much in a pre-performance talk where the links weren’t hard to find: that also means coming clean at the start about my involvement. But the world needs to know about this one.

Glasgow International Comedy Festival 2015 launch

Starry line-up for Europe's biggest festival of its kind

The Glasgow International Comedy Festival was launched last night (the day after Burns Night) at the Leicester Square Theatre in London, with Stewart Lee, Rob Deering, Simon Munnery, Janey Godley and others giving a taster of what's to come in Scotland's second city 12-29 March.

Wozzeck, BBCSSO, Runnicles, City Halls, Glasgow

WOZZECK, BBCSSO, RUNNICLES, CITY HALLS, GLASGOW Thomas J Mayer heads stellar cast in showy performance of Berg's masterpiece

Thomas J Mayer heads stellar cast in showy performance of Berg's masterpiece

It takes a brave man to programme a single performance of Berg’s Wozzeck on a damp Thursday evening in Glasgow. But Donald Runnicles is such a man. In his five years at the helm of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra he has proved adept at making the implausible possible, and turning the ordinary into something extraordinary.

Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, BBC One

TAD ON SCOTLAND: COMMONWEALTH GAMES Twitter votes no but Scotland puts out a cheerful welcome mat

Twitter votes no but Scotland puts out a cheerful welcome mat

What is an opening ceremony for? For the taste gendarmerie on Twitter, it’s a juicy chance to fall on the festivities like a pack of wolves and tear the thing to shreds. For homegrown celebrities now domiciled far from the host country, it’s a chance to reaffirm vows of patriotism in public. For everyone else, it’s a party attended by some ridiculously beautiful athletes, plus the codgers of the bowls team.

Glasgow Girls, BBC Three

More drama than musical in TV adaptation of the inspirational true story

A few months ago, Glasgow Girls - Cora Bissett and David Greig’s 2013 musical based on the true story of seven teenage girls from Drumchapel, Glasgow and their campaign to end the forced removal of school-age asylum seekers - returned to the city’s Citizens Theatre for another sell-out run.

CD: Honeyblood - Honeyblood

CD: HONEYBLOOD Promising debut from Glasgow duo packed with sugar and venom

Promising debut from Glasgow duo packed with sugar and venom

Right from their lo-fi beginnings, Glasgow’s Honeyblood have always been able to deliver the perfect kiss-off. It’s why it’s a relief to see that the duo’s self-titled debut album retains a fair slice of that crackle and hiss, Stina Tweeddale’s candy-coated vocals still providing a deceptive delivery method for her often venomous lyrics.