Night Moves @ Restless Natives Festival at The 13th Note

Last weekend, the former Fugees singer Lauryn Hill turned up two hours late for a gig in Atlanta because she was “aligning her energy with the time”. It’s not an excuse that I’ll be using next time I sleep in for work. But I do care as deeply as Hill about the artistic process, so I understand all too well her need to make time to be as “open, rested, sensitive and liberated to express myself as truthfully as possible”.

I’m joking, of course. Most artists don’t have much of a choice when it comes to performing on time, and it doesn’t seem to hinder their spontaneity, which Hill said she was making space for. Take, for example, the wonderfully weird performance by Qui at the 13th Note on Tuesday night.

It was part of the East End’s Restless Natives Festival, and I witnessed its quite awesome climax: two middle-aged American men crooning to a sparse crowd in unintentionally hilarious tones over electric piano, before veering off into eardrum-bursting thrash riffs and breakneck drumming. This was experimental music at its unhinged best, and I saw those guys writing emails on their laptops in the bar upstairs 10 minutes before they played. Sorry, Lauryn, but I think you might be at it.

Taking over the city’s artistically-flourishing East End for a week, the multi-disciplinary festival features international acts like Staten Island rapper Ghostface Killah (tomorrow, Saint Luke’s) and the Los Angeles-based Tim Hecker, who makes subtle, shimmering electronica (Sunday, Saint Luke’s). But its contingent of leading local talent is equally impressive: the 13th Note also hosts a Fuzzkill Records takeover tomorrow night with Breakfast Muff and Spinning Coin, while indie rockers Jutland songs support Good Grief here on Sunday. Expect killer hooks, boy-girl choruses… and the strictest standards of punctuality.

Night Moves@ Restless Natives Festival at The 13th Note

Q: Who’s your must-see act at this year’s festival?

1. Taylor Stewart, 21, Coatbridge, “Breakfast Muff at 13th Note tomorrow night”

2. Cal Donnelly, 20, Shawlands, “Bin Men, tomorrow night here at 13th Note”

3. Simone Wilson, 19, Baillieston, “Happy Meals and Ghostface Killah”

4. Ryan Wilson, 20, Shawlands, “All of them; I love music.”

5. Campbell Lawrie, 32, Oatlands, “Future of the Left at Saint Luke’s on Saturday”

Erin Donnelly, 25, East Kilbride, “Jutland Songs here on Sunday, they’re outstanding”

6. Eilidh McFie, 25, Coatbridge

Favourite Club? Buff Club

Favourite Bar? Flat 0/1

Favourite DJ? Todd Terje

Favourite Band? Dream On, Dreamer

What You Drinking? Gin & Cranberry Juice

First Club? The Cathouse

Describe Your Dancing? Really Bad

7. Keith Harcus, 41, East Kilbride, “Spinning Coin and Breakfast Muff”

David Dick, 27, Shawlands, “Ghostface Killah”