• David Kitt w/ Margie Lewis @ Roisin Dubh, Galway

    August 18, 2015 - By 

    In the past year or so, Irish indie-folk institution David Kitt has made leaps and bounds in a more club-oriented scene with his warm, groove-based approach to house music under his New Jackson alias. Other audiences however will associate him a lot more with something like the folk soundtrack to a rainy summer somewhere in Kerry, triggering the same nostalgia that comes with listening to The Frames Set List or Bell X1’s Music in Mouth. To see Kitt touring extensively around the country this summer in between massive dance settings such as Body and Soul’s Midnight Circus Stage or District…

  • Sun Kil Moon @ Open House Festival, Bangor

    August 12, 2015 - By 

    “People love me. Some people hate me. A lot of people love me, but some people hate me. Some people anonymously go on to the internet and say cruel, hateful things about me. But that’s ok. That’s ok. That’s ok because it means you’re somebody when that happens to you. It means that you’ve arrived. It means that you can lie in bed at night with a warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach. Some people hate me and some people love me. Some people come to my shows and write big, long essays about how much they love my music…

  • Strange Brew Summer Shindig #11 @ Roisin Dubh, Galway

    August 3, 2015 - By 

    It’s still relatively early in the evening on the Thursday of the Galway Races, July 30. I’m walking through the town which is flooded will ill-fitting suits and headwear that ranges from patch caps to multi-coloured shapes that defy the laws of physics. It’s mayhem. It’s loud. There’s a man with curry sauce all over his shirt shouting at a seagull and there’s a bunch of lads singing (read: bellowing) ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’. Despite the sense of mania of it all, it’s hard to not find it all just to be a lot of fun. People have come in…

  • Longitude 2015

    July 21, 2015 - By 

    Friday It wouldn’t be a festival without the uncertainty in the weather conditions, and as they shifted from heavy rain to beaming sunshine and back three times an hour, there was still a large turnout for the early opening time as buses pulled up coming from all across Ireland. Day One of Longitude had started. While the showers may have been scattered, the talent was constantly on show across the four stages, and as Wyvern Lingo opens the main stage, Haelos set up on the Whelan’s stage. A three-piece electronic band whose numbers double in the live environment with soothing…

  • Mastodon w/ Bad Breeding @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    June 30, 2015 - By 

    Treating tonight more like a pilgrimage into the dark heart of sludge-laden, conceptual metal than your typical jaunt to a gig, we’re joined giddily by the sizeable crowd of Mastodon T-shirt wearing fans as we enter the baroque surroundings of the Ulster Hall.  The air, thick with beard and brew, seemingly creates its own atmospherics ahead of any performance so far, but, safe in the knowledge that we’ll be banging our heads soon we file in and stand our ground.  It’s not exactly filled to the brim, but it’s not nearly empty either and the consensus thus far is that…

  • Mastodon w/ Bad Breeding @ Olympia Theatre, Dublin

    June 29, 2015 - By 

    The night begins with a small clan of bemused faces. On the stage is Bad Breeding (frontman, Chris Dodd, below), throwing out fuzzy, mashed agro punk. Clever without being innovative it’s reminiscent of Black Flag, Crass and the noise-rock elements of bands like The Horrors. Not a bad thing, in and of itself, but elements of the crowd are as disinterested as the distortion is unrelenting. This simply seems to be a case of bad booking. So the majority of the crowd hole up in The Olympia’s wonderfully anachronistic bar. The black t-shirts are adorned with tonight’s headliner and the…

  • Russian Circles w/ Val Normal @ Hangar, Dublin

    June 29, 2015 - By 

    The Hangar, formerly Andrew’s Lane Theatre, is fast becoming the best place in Dublin for punk and metal gigs. Grimier, in all the right ways, than the Academy and much more spacious than Whelans, it’s a place that bands like Fucked Up and Titus Andronicus should be playing. So it makes sense that U:Mack, a thoroughly great group, would use the Hangar to host the Instrumental noise makers Russian Circles. The night kicks off with Dublin’s Val Normal, a math rock group. Val are very much a touring band. They’re the kind of group that you’d see on bills throughout…

  • Body & Soul Festival 2015

    June 24, 2015 - By 

    Friday afternoon of Body and Soul 2015 saw waves of punters throwing their eyes in every direction while walking around the impressively navigable site. Everywhere you look something else is noticed, be it a person juggling, dancing or performing acrobatics, or another one of the myriad food, drink or craft stalls dotted throughout the place. This sense of wonder and intrigue that opened the festival continued throughout the weekend but from the get-go acted as a reminder that this festival is about far more than the musical line-up. It’s about escape from the norm, from the trajectory that a day…

  • Fleetwood Mac @ 3Arena, Dublin

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    So I’m back / to the 3 arena / back to the band that I love… Ok, so I may be biased… no hang on, I AM biased because I believe Fleetwood Mac are the greatest living, breathing and touring band in existence. They’re a band who have never mired in talent, their songs are astronomically timeless with all present members accounted for and individually influential. It’s an absolute privilege to watch them perform together with a never-waning enthusiasm for songs you’d expect them to be tired of by now. Consider this: the band are all pushing 70. Stevie announced…

  • ASIWYFA Irish Tour

    June 22, 2015 - By 

    North Coast quartet And So I Watch You From Afar played two extraordinary Irish shows at the weekend, at Dublin’s Olympia and Belfast’s Mandela Hall respectively. Our photographers Isabel Thomas and Colm Laverty, and writers Eoghain Meakin and Cathal McBride were there to cover it all. Olympia Theatre, Dublin Photos by Isabel Thomas There’s something special about the Olympia. It’s not the most high profile venue in the city, nor does it always host the best acts from under or over the ground. But the traditional stage, elaborate plaster work and balconies add a sense of occasion to proceedings hard to…