• The Hate U Give

    October 24, 2018 - By 

    In the last few years, Fox 2000 Pictures has developed a line in sturdy, engaging, young-adult adaptations that play with teen melodrama and “issue” storytelling. And The Hate U Give is the best yet. The Fault in Our Stars was the Ur-text, then Paper Towns, last year’s underrated Love, Simon and now The Hate U Give, from Angie Thomas’ 2017 novel. The film reminded me intensely of Love, Simon, with its arc of a teenager settling into a stable identity and owning their own experiences, and its emphatic exploration of a young person struggling with how to speak their own truth.…

  • Preview: Stick in The Wheel

    October 23, 2018 - By 

    On Thursday, October 25th, we team up once again with the North’s finest promoters of forward-moving sounds, Moving on Music. And it’s all for good reason: the Belfast debut of East London four-piece Stick in The Wheel at the Duncairn. Led by vocalist Nicola Kearey and guitarist Ian Carter, the quartet are widely regarded by everyone from MOJO,  UNCUT and the BBC Folk Awards, to our very own Lankum, as one of the most compelling – and not to mention most culturally and politically switched – folk acts around. Combined, the band’s two full-length albums to date – From Here and Follow Me True –…

  • Bloc Party @ 3Arena, Dublin

    October 23, 2018 - By 

    Thirteen years on from the release of their seminal debut, Silent Alarm, Bloc Party come to Dublin to play their biggest Irish show to date. Headline shows in the 3 arena are usually reserved for bands who have proved their worth, released several albums of notable acclaim while gradually growing a loyal and passionate fanbase. Although this may not be the case for Bloc Party, tonight we can make an exception to celebrate one of the most revered albums of the noughties. It’s not that Bloc Party are a bad band per se, it’s just that since Silent Alarm the…

  • Idles @ Button Factory, Dublin

    October 23, 2018 - By 

    The accepted trajectory of momentum in modern music can be an almighty fucker. But it’s no indelible law. There are, after all, those artists who somehow manage to ride the killer wave without buckling at the knees, being swiftly consigned to the industry seabed and bid adieu with a muffled chorus of, “See? Told you they weren’t all that.” In the case of the irrepressible Idles, it seems that no amount of five-star reviews or bandwidth-shagging kudos can derail their focus from what they already have: killer songs brimming with pit-starting transmissions of self-love and tolerance, and an ever-growing fanbase whose wide-eyed love of their music outshines the tut and tsk of even the…

  • Manic Street Preachers Set For Dublin Return

    October 22, 2018 - By 

    Four years on from playing the Dame Street venue, Manic Street Preachers will play Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on Sunday, May 12th, 2019. The show will mark the 21st time the Welsh alt-rock heroes have played the capital, with their first show in the city being March, 1992 as part of the Generation Terrorists tour. This new date will come off the back of the 20th anniversary reissue of the band’s fifth album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. Tickets go on sale at 9am from Friday, October 26th, priced €54.50.