Highlights
State @ SXSW 2010 – Day 1
The gauntlet has been thrown down. South by South West is upon us once again. Over a year, the impact of this massive music festival in Austin, Texas can diminish since your last visit, but oh lordy, make no mistake, Austin is the music town. Amongst 2,000 bands, 12,000 official attendees and the many…
Alex Chilton (1950-2010)
Alex Chilton, who led Big Star in making three of the most unbelievably beautiful albums in rock’n’roll history, died on March 17th in New Orleans. He died of a heart attack, at 59.
It is hard to overstate his stature, or that of the band he founded in Memphis in 1971 with Andy Hummel,…
The Waterboys Present: An Appointment with Mr Yeats -The Abbey Theatre, Dublin
Mike Scott, Steven Wickham and an international mix of talented musicians planted their roots firmly in the historic Abbey Theatre. The setting is apt as a conscious homage to the master poet William Butler Yeats. A selection from at least twenty five of Yeats’ poems and plays, spanning both famous and lesser known works,…
Owen Pallett – Interview
Having already conquered hearts and minds across Ireland with his previous visits, Owen Pallett returns to Dublin this week to remind us how phenomenal he is. His new album, Heartland, is a spectacular achievement, the finest thing he’s done yet. Live, he’s a revelation, forcing you to forget whatever you thought you knew about…
The Body & Soul Solstice Gathering
Oh, rejoice, ye who love to party for there’s a brand new festival in town. With the launch of their first stand alone festival, the team behind the wonderful Body & Soul area at Electric Picnic have taken a step closer to realising their dream of establishing a permanent festival space in Ireland. The…
State Mix Series #14: Shatterfreak
The latest State mix comes courtesy of Dublin’s Aidan O Brien aka Shatterfreak. Specialising in dubstep with ambient and atmospheric turns, his tunes have been played on revered specialist nights and radio stations such as Low End Theory in LA and Sub FM’s dubstep show After Dark DJs. He’s has also released an album…
Local Natives – Academy 2, Dublin
There’s an expectant crowd in Dublin’s Academy 2 for Californians’ Local Natives second visit here, with the majority of the capacity crowd drifting in during a fine set by support act, Peggy Sue.
The Californian five-piece take to the stage without much fanfare..
Vitalic – The Academy, Dublin
Warning: This performance may feature strobe lighting effects. It may also feature frantic LED mania and a 30-foot mirror on stage so you can catch yourself pogoing in the front row. Yes, it does look like Vitalic’s latest show for his Flashmob LP is sprinkling some disco dust around the Academy. It’s not a…
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…
Adrian Crowley – Season of the Sparks
Early this month, the oracles at the Irish Times listed their “50 best music acts right now”, so that we would all know who to like, at least until their next list. And in amidst the nostalgic wishful thinking (Ash) and premature overpraising (Villagers), there were a few genuine results: notably, Adrian Crowley carded…
Airborne Toxic Event – Lille Vega, Copenhagen
With the new album two months away from release the LA (“we’re not from Hollywood. We from the side where people work”) group seem to be enjoying their tour, and genuinely happy with the people who have shown up to see them on their first visit to Denmark. They’re quite a mixed bunch on…
State vs Club AU #2 – The Rags, Escape Act, John Shelly & The Creatures
Hot on the heels of last week’s memorable Villagers, ASIWYFA and Alphastates triple bill comes the second State & Club AU collaboration, this time featuring two names from the AU part of the world alongside one of Dublin’s finest. The Rags have been operating below the radar of late, readying their debut album for…
State & AU night – The Purty Loft, Monkstown
State in conjunction with our friends in the North, AU kicked off the first of what we hope to be many excellent cross-border lineups on Friday night. Kicking things off in The Purty Loft in Monkstown was Conor O’ Brien playing a solo show under his Villagers moniker. Not one to let himself be…
Doves – Olympia Theatre, Dublin & giveaway
It’s four years since Doves released Some Cities, a hiatus in which the world has plummeted into recession and the music industry has not been spared. Fans were concerned about the long pause, worried the band had called it a day. Thankfully those concerns were unfounded: Doves were quietly writing Kingdom of Rust, a…
