And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist Niall Kennedy’s A Bad Cavalier will play our first free live show as part of our weekly stint at Belfast’s Laverys Back Bar on Tuesday, February 24. Also featuring tunes from yours truly until late, the intimate performance will be followed be a draw for two tickets to Slane 2015. Just turn up on the night to be entered. Go here for the show’s Facebook event page and check out A Bad Cavalier in action below.
In an AAA shoot, photographer Dee MvEvoy popped along to our show with Girl Band and Robocobra Quartet at Belfast’s Bar Sub at the weekend.
In the latest installment of Rave New World, the impossibly heedful, ineffably excellent Antoin Lindsay & Aidan Hanratty delve into best new electronic tracks and mixes of the week, as well as various unmissable upcoming nights and releases. Gigs Ken & Ryu – EP Launch Party at The Menagerie, Belfast Friday, February 6 James McConville AKA Ken & Ryu is launching his Fantasy Ink EP at The Menagerie tonight alongside Defcon, Jamie Nelson and Paul McCarthy. I reviewed the EP on these very pages and the party should be equally as enjoyable. AL Twitch Present Ben UFO, Pearson Sound and Pangaea at The Mandela…
In a film primarily concerned with death, it’s fitting that the soundtrack serves as an elegy. Graceful, portentous, and dramatic, Ennio Morricone’s score for Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West is more or less devoid of the whoops, shrieks, and catchy electric guitar that helped both men make a name for themselves on A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, a soundtrack that became one of the most iconic and evocative of its era. But despite that, it might just be the best thing one of the 20th century’s finest composers ever put his name to. Italian director Sergio Leone had made a few…
Few Irish bands command seemingly effortless originality as convincingly as Meltybrains? The lead single from their debut vinyl release ‘Donegal/IV’, ‘Donegal’ is a spirited, expansive ode to escapism, reverb-laced lingering vocal lines and shuffling rhythms marrying in a mighty mesh of fist-clenched, impassioned abandon. ‘Donegal/IV’ is released on February 16. Pre-order it from Rough Trade right here.
A colloboration between the Lyric, the Abbey Theatre and the Soho Theatre, the dark and potent Death of a Comedian will run from February 7 to March 8 at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre. Starring Brian Doherty as small-time stand-up Steve Johnson its tagline “What if I’m not funny? What if I go out there and I’m not funny?” aptly distils the essence of the production. Self-belief, ambition, romance and the pursuit for glory entwine in a heady tale of fame, fortune and failure. Go here to buy tickets to Death of a Comedian and watch the trailer for the show below.
Donal O’Luanaigh (or Chief to those of you who know him well) is one of the ‘chief’ lighting technicians at Vicar Street in Dublin. We discuss his work and how he bring light to all your favourite bands on stage. Photos by Shaun Neary. Hi Donal! Can you tell us about yourself? Hi! I’m Donal, 32 years old from Dublin, I work as a freelance lighting designer/engineer/technician/crew, delete where applicable. ‘Lampy’ is probably the most commonly used term. You’re most likely to find me in Vicar Street but there’s no job too big or small. How did you get your nickname…
Running from February 19 to March 1, the first ever NI Science Festival will pique curiousity and imagine in everything from music venues and coffee shops to cinemas and museums. During the day the festival will present a whole host of workshops, talks and interactive activities for young people, parents and schools. In the evening the festival will come alive with an eclectic mix of scientific debates, talks, theatre, comedy, music and film for adults. Go here to check out the full festival programme,
Firmly commanding our attention with their debut EP, Dandelion, last year, Dublin trio Cloud Castle Lake have returned with ‘Glacier’, a tracking evoking Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Cinematic Orchestra and Do Make Say Think. A wonderfully-layered effort, beautifully disentangling over five-and-a-half minutes, the track sees Daniel McAuley’s high falsetto vocals take centre-stage yet again – and how. Recorded and mixed by Solar Bears’ Rian Trench, the track will be released via Happy Valley Records on March 16. With shows also taking place in England, the band will play Galway’s Roisin Dubh on March 26, Dublin’s Workman’s Club on March 27 and Limerick’s Kasbah…
Every once and a while you stumble across a voice that just stops you in your tracks. A self-proclaimed “devotional” artist, Dublin’s David Blaney AKA Cat Palace falls firmly within that bracket. Placed somewhere between The Blue Nile, Talk Talk, REM and Bonnie Prince Billy, his unaffected, ache-laced vocals and stripped-back acoustic liturgies forge to concoct something bordering on the mystical. Featuring singles ‘Cage’ and ‘Hear Me Lord’, as well as three other tracks, his debut EP commands, broods and sates in fine fashion, capturing an Irish singer-songwriter doing something very singular indeed. Cat Palace is released at Dublin’s Bello Bar on Saturday…