Live Review
Cut Copy – Dublin
When Cut Copy’s second album In Ghost Colours… blew up in 2008, it was a surprise critical and commercial success, going to number one in their native Australia and finding a considerable fanbase abroad. Its arrival was well-timed and it opened a door for the likes of fellow Antipodean natives Ladyhawke and Empire Of...READ »
Iceland Airwaves 2011 – Around-the-town photos and free album downloads
Here’s a collection of photos from around Reykjavik during the Airwaves weekend including the hangover party at the Blue Lagoon. FatCat Records had a large amount of artists playing up in Iceland at the festival this year including Mazes, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Maps & Atlases and also artists from their fascinating post-classical imprint...READ »
James Vincent McMorrow – Dublin
Elizabeth Taylor once said that success was the best deodorant of all. If we can believe Queen Liz, then James Vincent McMorrow must be smelling pretty good right now because here we are in the Olympia for the second night the Dubliner has sold out the venue. Flashback to 2010 and James headlined Whelan’s,...READ »
State vs Young Hearts Run Free
We’ve missed our monthly Friday nights at the Mercantile so it was a great pleasure to return to action on Friday night and in the name of a good cause to boot. Our guests were the Young Hearts Run Free, the collective who work tirelessly on raising funds for the Dublin Simon Community. They...READ »
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Dublin
Photo by Sean Conroy Between his debut solo album topping both the UK and Irish albums charts which, after only one week of sales, is already outselling Beady Eye’s Different Gear, Still Speeding… – and opening his first ever solo tour in his ancestral hometown of Dublin, Noel Gallagher has reason to swagger on...READ »
Bon Iver – Dublin
For Emma, Forever ago…, a record was born in a remote Wisconsin forest cabin. Its immediacy rang out: heartache, loss, regret, loneliness. All from one man too, Justin Vernon. But Vernon was quick to prove he wasn’t just another lovelorn beardy with a battered guitar. Performed live, seemingly straight-up folk songs took on...READ »
Iceland Airwaves 2011 – Saturday
Knowing full well that Friday will be a late one, the festival lays on the best possible thing to do with a hangover on Saturday morning – the now habitual trip to the Blue Lagoon thermal pools. For the damaged Airwave heads there’s a mellow DJ, a local band and a bar (serving a...READ »
The Joy Formidable – Dublin
Ritzy Bryan appears on stage in Whelan’s looking like little red riding hood as an angelic blonde. She’s so small she’s dwarfed by Matt Thomas’ drum kit, and, meekly requests in a Minnie Mouse-esque voice that the close-up crowd do not spill anything on her pedal board. The cartoon-esque persona is quickly dashed by...READ »
Iceland Airwaves 2011 – Friday
Beginning Friday with something we would only do once this weekend – namely making it down for the hotel breakfast – we’re fresh and ready to check out some of the vast off-venue gigs that take place from early afternoon up till around the time the main venues kick off. In the gorgeous and...READ »
Emmy The Great – Dublin
It’s Monday night, it’s cold and wet, so a queue isn’t exactly forming all the way down Leeson Street outside The Sugar Club for the visit of Emma Lee-Moss and her band. Inside, the atmosphere is equally subdued. Most tables are taken, but it’s far from packed out. Emmy the Great has been something...READ »
The Minutes – Dublin
There’s no support act on offer in Whelan’s tonight – instead, a lone DJ spinning classic rock & roll on vinyl, the influences of The Minutes at full blast and setting the tone for what lies ahead. Shane Kinsella appears onstage as Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Albatross’ fades to mute, a brief solo intro giving but...READ »
Iceland Airwaves 2011 – Thursday
There’s more of a feeling of adventure arriving at Iceland Airwaves than at any other festival with the dramatic weather and landscape, and it’s fitting enough that we seem to drive through a neon-bright rainbow on the coach in from the airport. The high levels of organisation mean that it’s so easy to get...READ »
dEUS – Dublin
dEUS have had to change venue, from The Olympia to a venue that caters for roughly half that capacity, The Academy. That’s the harsh reality of the gig scene now, and fair play to dEUS for deciding that they’d rather a smaller, fuller venue than a half full Olympia. Bearing in mind that a...READ »
Bob Dylan / Mark Knopfler – Dublin
Billed in all but name as a rock dinosaur double-header, Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler’s opening show of their joint European tour is no doubt one for blues fans with deep pockets. Blues music- American roots music, in general- flows deep for both Dylan and Knopfler, the latter exploring American roots music more ardently...READ »
