The Analog Festival took place last weekend in Grand Canal Square with some unique musical events. Friday saw Hal Willner’s Rogues Gallery where famous voice and faces sang pirate ballads, sea songs and chanteys. It was surreal and at one point, Lou Reed, Shane McGowan and Tim Robbins (Yes – the actor Tim Robbins) were leading the masses in song. the event also featured Rachel Unthank and The Winterset, The Virgin Prunes, Teddy Thompson, Neil Hannon and Waterson:Carthy amongst others.

Sunday saw the wonderful sound of Taraf De Haïdouks, the finest exporter of Romanian gypsy folk played at lightning-fast speeds. The older they are, the more rotund they are, the more they dance it seems. Stupendous.

Saturday was notably more indie-rock orientated with an ferociously rocking opening set from Liars. Efterklang followed and their set was largely just…. nice and lacking any real crescendos. Suitable for the warm Saturday evening air but not exactly a blast. Tortoise closed the set with an hour of great post-rock/jazz tunes. Two drummers dominated stage-front, in-tune and on-time, providing a vital visual accompaniment to their not exactly ecstatic-looking fellow members.

Lovely pictures below by Colm Mullen (email), which are so good we couldn’t resist sharing them here.

Liars

Efterklang

Tortoise