• Preview: Atlantic Sessions 2017

    October 23, 2017 - By 

    Atlantic Sessions returns across November 16-19 with over 60 acts performing in Portstewart, Portrush  and Portballintrae. If 2016 is anything to go by this will be a glorious return. Flogging a festival is hard work, ask anyone daft enough to think they can get away with it. There is a collection of calamities for every Castlepalooza, a box of bankruptcies for every Belsonic and many a chain-smoking, sweary booker languishing in a post-summer lull promising to never, ever, do it again. Let’s face it: there is no shortage of the things as any regular reader of The Thin Air probably knows. Given…

  • Joshua Burnside w/ Ports & Little Rivers @ Studio2, Liverpool

    October 6, 2017 - By 

    Liverpool’s Studio2 is an odd sort of a place. It’s on the backstreet of a backstreet, far away from Concert Square, the main strip and the horror of the bottled Beatles, 80s bars and fake paddywhackery of Matthew St. For the non-scousers among you, don’t Google Concert Square – it’s not what you think it is. In fact, if you ever get to Liverpool avoid the place like the bloody plague. And yet here we are, among the carparks, mechanics and those kinds of places that can just afford the rent around here. This little oasis in the middle of…

  • Atlantic Sessions 2016

    January 10, 2017 - By 

    In a slightly delayed review we take a look back at Atlantic Sessions 2016 and look forward to the next session. Words and Images by Chris Flack, additional images by Tim Swart courtesy of Atlantic Sessions. With waves crashing against the shoreline, a relentless Atlantic wind, a canopy of snow on the hills and a decidedly vicious chill in the air, Atlantic Sessions rolled into the North Coast in November for its 8th year. And what a year it was, a near-perfect way to see out the shitstorm that was 2016. Hosting over 50 artists in 20 venues across the…

  • Hozier, Wyvern Lingo @ Liverpool Empire Theatre

    January 14, 2016 - By 

    There are many grand theaters in Liverpool, a city where they come ten to the penny. With a dozen or so within spitting distance that would work, tonight is about the splendour of a proper neoclassical master. Bathed in tons of marble and acres of velvet The Empire sets the scene for the 2400 odd that have packed in to a sold out show. Sandwiched between the Panto and Priscilla Queen of the desert, tonight’s show has a very Wicklow bent. I say this as I was asked on numerous occasions if there was a local support act, there wasn’t……

  • Sea Legs w/ Little Rivers @ LEAF Cafe, Liverpool

    October 19, 2015 - By 

    Near the top of Bold Street as you amble uphill toward the bombed out church; beyond the spot where less intrepid travellers pause, is a place of rest and recuperation; a place of beauty, chocolate wonderment, amazing brews and some of the finest music in the City.  A tea room in the 20’s, a cinema in the 60’s and home of the original Microzine clothes shop in the 00’s, LEAF stands proudly in this beautiful art deco building.  It is fortunate to have maintained above its main tea emporium a triple height acoustically beautiful performance space, filled with an impressive…