Articles by Steve Cummins
Humanzi – Kingdom Of Ghosts
Of the crop of new Irish bands that appeared mid-way through the last decade, it was Humanzi who endured the biggest push and the hardest fall. Backed by a major label, managed by the man behind The Thrills, written about in the UK press, and handed countless numbers of high-profile support slots by gig…
First Aid Kit – The Big Black and The Blue
It couldn’t be a hotly tipped new act without some sort of web-related story to send PR chiefs foaming at the mouth. Comprised of Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg – 19 and 17 years old respectively – harmonic folk duo First Aid Kit headed to woodlands with a guitar and video camera after…
Fight Like Apes – Academy, Dublin
Fight Like Apes now annual Christmas show has this year stretched into a second helping yet it is perhaps not obvious how this one will work out. The band are performing a hometown gig in a specially-commissioned wrestling ring. And that’s not all. Never one to do things by half, the four-piece have taken…
The Swell Season – Vicar Street, Dublin
Few Irish people have divided opinion over the past 10 years quite like Glen Hansard. Lauded by the indie community circa 2001 and with the release of For The Birds, Hansard has now become something of a Bono-figure for sections of the same army that catapulted The Frames towards huge shows at The Point…
Julian Casablancas – The Academy, Dublin
Come the end of the decade, it always seemed like Julian Casablancas would be a name passing many a cultural commentator’s lips. Quite that it would be in the manner that it is, was less predictable. As frontman and chief songwriter of The Strokes, the better part of the past 10 years was Casablancas’…
The Airborne Toxic Event, Olympia Theatre, Dublin
Hail to the power of radio play. Tonight is testament to what remains the number one force for pushing a band around these parts. Following five previous visits to these shores, one album and a considerable radio hit under their belt, The Airborne Toxic Event walk onstage at The Olympia, reaching something of a…
Richard Hawley – Olympia Theatre, Dublin
Soldier on – two words which would have been close to Richard Hawley’s mind as he walked out on stage at the Olympia tonight. Under the weather, Hawley followed opener ‘As The Dawn Breaks’ with an apology for any problems that may persist with his voice at this, his biggest ever-Irish show. The 42-year-old…
Port O’Brien – Threadbare
Like Bon Ivor, there’s great romance in Port O’Brien’s back-story. The group’s two main players Cambria Goodwin and Van Pierszalowski are romantically linked, with their lives played out in a manner you might expect of a novel. Part-time musicians, Pierszalowski spends the summer months away from his partner, working aboard his father’s Alaskan commercial…
The XX interview
To be honest, State had been expecting the worst. Stood motionless on stage, dressed head-to-toe in black, and with a dour expression etched across his face to match his appearance, The XX’s Ollie Sim doesn’t exactly come across as a bundle of fun. Despite cramming a good deal of Stradbally’s temporary populous into the…
Delorentos – You Can Make Sound
When approaching Delorentos‘ second album, it would be remiss not to mention the difficult gestation period behind its release. After all, it will dominate much of the record’s media coverage over the coming weeks. The story is such – having mirrored growing acclaim with an excellent debut in 2007’s In Love With Detail, the…
Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
You find great comfort in the music of Richard Hawley. The lush arrangements; the sad and unapologetically soul-baring words; and the blanket of warmth that is the Sheffield crooner’s enriched velvet vocal tones – tones, which seem to soothe the soul. Hawley’s perennial subjects may be of the bleakness of love and loss, but…
Wallis Bird – New Boots
You won’t have heard too much about Wallis Bird. Certainly, for at artist now on their second major label deal in as many albums, the quietly spoken Meath born and Wexford raised singer songwriter has gone somewhat under the radar in her native country.
It won’t always be the case. Bird has followed up…
Wilco – Vicar Street, Dublin
The first of two sold-out shows at Dublin’s Vicar Street, there’s times tonight when you buy into much of the recent nonsense that has been written about Wilco having finally found some humour to inject into the public’s dour, ‘difficult’ perception of the Chicago six-piece. Slapstick 1940s walk-on tunes, jokes about the state of…
The Dead Weather – Horehound
As ever, the art of presentation hasn’t been lost on Jack White. The name of his latest side-project, the title of their debut album and the cover artwork tell you much of what to expect within. This is dark, primal bluesy rock music, wicked and nasty; dirty and thick; and brimming with just a…
