This Is Memorial Device review – memories of fictional indie heroes burn brightly

Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh
An adaptation of David Keenan’s novel about a Scottish band who nearly supported Sonic Youth is lovingly detailed

A few years ago, the director Stewart Laing invented a character called Paul Bright. He was a Glasgow performance artist who had staged an epic adaptation of Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg in the 1980s, and Laing assembled the press cuttings, posters and first-hand memories to prove it.

In another parallel universe, 12 miles east in Airdrie, a band called Memorial Device were acquiring a similar cult status. As imagined by David Keenan in his 2017 novel, they grew out of the ashes of North Lanarkshire combos with names like Occult Theocracy and might even have supported Sonic Youth had they not split up. Those other local bands were good – Chinese Moon, who represented themselves on stage as mannequins, were particularly notable – but Memorial Device were the special ones.

At the Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, until 29 August.

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