• 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…

  • The Sisters of Mercy @ Mandela Hall, Belfast

    July 10, 2014 - By 

    Legendary gothic rockers The Sisters of Mercy descended upon Belfast on Tuesday, July 8, bringing their impressively large collection of hits with them.The band, who haven’t released any new music since 1992, are perennial live favourites, and their Belfast date didn’t disappoint, drawing a large crowd of the children of the night to shake their slightly unfunky stuff.Our resident goths Peter McCaughan and Steven Rainey were there, and in a change from usual programming, they bring us this bite-sized audio review, capturing the sights, sounds, and occasionally smells, of what went down. Photos by Dee McAvoy Audio Review: Sisters of Mercy…

  • Bob Dylan – 02, Dublin

    June 19, 2014 - By 

    Six decades, thirty five studio albums and several reinventions in, it has long been a certified fact that Bob Dylan – showing few signs of slowing down at seventy-three – has no-one or nothing left to prove. With his critically-acclaimed thirty-fifth album, Tempest, once more stoking the embers of his altogether extraordinary career, a varied legion of hardened fans and sprightly newcomers to the Sacred Word of Dylan converge to Dublin’s 02 tonight for a concert that could well be filed under the “Mass” on Ticketmaster. The question remains, however: how many of tonight’s mixed audience will leave content having spent top dollar for a show that has little interest in…

  • Angel Olsen @ Whelan’s

    June 10, 2014 - By 

    Angel Olsen takes to the stage of Whelan’s on the first leg of a three date tour of Ireland surrounded by a three-piece backing band to a highly anticipatory Dublin audience. The Missouri born singer has taken quite a jump forward in popularity this year with the release of her second album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, which has established Olsen as not only a force to be reckoned with, but also the aforementioned release as an early contender for standout album of the year. You get the impression that the album has both cemented her talent and credibility…

  • De La Soul w/ Joe Lindsay @ CQAF

    May 13, 2014 - By 

    Tonight, as the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival sadly draws to its inevitable close, Belfast is fortunate enough to have hip hop royalty De La Soul performing at Custom House Square, ensuring that the festival should go out with a bang. An oldskool hip hop sort of bang, rather. Upon arriving at tonight’ s venue, mingling throngs of hip hop fans old and young line up in eager anticipation of what’s starting to look like a belter of an evening. Through the entrance to the square, there are a few of the usual vendors selling their cold, delicious, life giving, good-time-having beery…

  • Everything Everything, Thumpers, Outfit @ Limelight 1, Belfast

    October 14, 2013 - By 

    Having released their breakthrough, critically devoured second album Arc back in January, Manchester quartet Everything Everything stop off at Belfast’s recently expanded Limelight 1 comfortable in their status as 2013’s most comprehensively doted-upon darlings of English indie pop. But, as is invariably the case, having come to prominence so rapidly over the last few months, it remains to be seen how well the Jonathan Higgs-fronted four-piece fare in satisfying older fans whilst accommodating for the whims of the very newly inducted. The first of Everything Everything’s two touring support bands tonight, Liverpool psychedelic pop five-piece Outfit deliver a commanding performance to…