• Electric Picnic 2014 @ Stradbally Estate, Co. Laois

    September 2, 2014 - By 

    With a sickeningly diverse lineup of local and international acts, both old and new, spanning more or less every genre under the glistening sun, Electric Picnic 2014 is the hottest ticket of the Irish summer, and upon exploration of the festival site (it would be unjust to ignore Electric Picnic’s attention to detail) there’s the essential Body & Soul zone, functioning as the hippie commune area of the site – the music and arts festival is, after all, the bedrock of the hippie dream – and the Trailer Park, which offers corn dogs, some cover bands and an assortment of…

  • The Front Bottoms @ QUBSU

    August 25, 2014 - By 

    The Front Bottoms are flying high at the minute, fresh off a support slot in the US with Say Anything and selling out a number of their shows on their current UK tour.  Renowned for bringing the fun with their live shows, stage props and all, and Brian Sella’s deeply personal lyrics doing the heavy-lifting. They have a lot of hype to back up on this show. Although the SU bar is hardly packed for the show the crowd here are ready to enjoy themselves and that alone makes the room feel more crowded. Indeed, It’s immediately clear that The Front Bottoms…

  • Deafheaven w/ No Spill Blood @ Mandela Hall

    August 20, 2014 - By 

    The stir of Deafheaven’s first performance in Belfast is one that few could have anticipated, and even fewer will have forgotten. It was 2012, and the San Francisco black metal outfit were on their first European tour in support of post-rock heavyweights Russian Circles. The band played to an almost entirely uninitiated Speakeasy Bar that night; it wasn’t long, though, until the sheer surprise of the aural viciousness emanating from the stage transformed to excitement and awe. The room, packed full of post-rock fans,  was audibly delighted with the performance. It’s unlikely that any other black metal band in the…

  • Stendhal Festival of Art 2014

    August 10, 2014 - By 

    Make no bones about it: the Glasgowbury-shaped hole in the Northern Irish summer festival calendar is indeed a sizable one. But as is equally apparent to those of us in eager search of its successor, it’s all very much a case of one door closes, another door opens. Teetering right on the precipice of ascending to the enviable rank of Northern Ireland’s singular unmissable two-day music and arts festival, Stendhal Festival of Art, with its glorious rural expanse and wonderfully kaleidoscopic eclecticism, is set to do just that this weekend. Here’s how things went down. Held on the barley-bordered fields of Ballymully Farm…

  • Steve Earle @ Open House Festival

    August 6, 2014 - By 

    With an image of the ascending Christ as a backdrop, the sanctuary of Bangor Abbey would be an imposing stage for many lesser artists than Steve Earle, who, from the opening unnamed new song to the closing favourite ‘Copperhead Road’, ensures the sold-out Bangor crowd’s attention remains on the music rather than on the discomfort of the church pews. The absence of a merchandise stall, café and bar facilities, or a support act does not detract from an intense yet entertaining set from the Texan, who admits between songs, “It’s not the first time that I’ve played in a church,…

  • Oh Volcano @ Voodoo, Belfast

    August 5, 2014 - By 

    When a band with a firmly established sound and style decide to go on hiatus only to re-emerge under a different name and with a new creative direction, it’s not just surprising – it is brave. There’s not just the danger of potentially alienating their existing fan-base but the risk of their flirtations with experimentation failing miserably, leading to retreats with tails between legs. It is with this thought in the back of our in mind that we approach the debut headline show of Oh Volcano, the highly anticipated new guise of ex-General Fiasco band members, Owen and Enda Strathern,…

  • Volume Control: The Emerald Armada, Joshua Burnside, Jamie Neish & Matthew Duly @ Oh Yeah Centre

    July 29, 2014 - By 

    For the last week Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre has been home to three summer camps for journalism, photography and music, all of which build up to tonight’s Volume Control show. Volume Control is a programme run by the Oh Yeah Centre for teens aged 14-18 to organise and promote their own gigs and tonight is anticipated to be their most successful gig of the year; with a line-up like tonight’s, what else is to be expected? The VC team have a huge weight on their shoulders pulling off this show and from first thing this morning it seems problems…

  • Arnocorps, Scimitar @ The Speakeasy, Belfast

    July 28, 2014 - By 

    “GET TO THE CHOPPA!”, an excitable fan bellows outside Queen’s Students Union as I’m getting out of a taxi. At least, I can only assume he’s a fan. Not only is his hollered missive straight out of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 classic muscles-n-monster movie, Predator, but it is delivered in a faux Austrian accent with a decidedly South Belfast twang. Oh, that and the fact that he is dressed from head to toe in military style tactical gear, his side-arm swapped out for a Nerf Maverick revolver. And he has a squadron of similarly attired comrades backing up his six. At…

  • Festival Diary: With Full Force 2014

    July 19, 2014 - By 

    What better way to kick of the July than with German beer, super sunny skies, BBQs and some hardcore and metal? Takingplace on the first weekend of July in Roitzschjora Airfield, Löbnitz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, With Full Force sees its twenty-first outing this weekend, packing in some of the very best acts in their respective, varyingly heavy fields. I fly in to Berlin the day before to avoid the bulk of people who normally arrive on the first day, catching a coach down to Liepzig and spending the journey joking and discussing bands with two other festival goers. Having met with…

  • Cat Power, Arborist @ Empire Music Hall

    July 16, 2014 - By 

    The queue waiting outside Belfast’s Empire Music Hall to buy tickets as doors open tonight shows there a lack of belief Chan Marshall would make it to Belfast again but she still manages to attract a crowd. Ranging from suited-up hipsters to middle-aged couples dressed for a night out, there is a massive amount of interest in seeing the reinvigorated Cat Power make up for the cancelled tour dates of 2012. As the room fills there is a sense of anticipation building in the intimate venue to see what Chan Marshall delivers. The support for the evening is Belfast-based band…