• Unthank : Smith at Empire Music Hall, Belfast

    March 29, 2023 - By 

    Paul Smith and Rachel Unthank reimagine radical futures through the lens of traditional folk and new songs from and about the north of England during a spellbinding Monday evening in the Empire Music Hall. Shape-shifting arrangements veer from unaccompanied close harmony to mesmerising full band jazz-inflected work-outs. Alex Neilson from free-improvisation folk group Trembling Bells provides an eerie psych-folk backdrop on drums. Accompaniment on clarinet is provided by Faye McCalman from avant-jazz group Archipelago. The Maximo Park frontman adds a sharp pop nous to the songs from their recent record Nowhere and Everywhere – performed in its entirety tonight. The…

  • Wet Leg at Limelight 1, Belfast

    November 29, 2022 - By 

    Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers are having some year. The buzzy hype from ‘Chaise Longue’ has been followed up with a well-received debut album and a series of smart, knowing promotional videos. Tonight’s show at the Limelight is at the tail-end of a victory lap of smaller venues that Wet Leg have admirably remained committed to despite a rising profile. Belfast city centre four Sundays before Christmas is a weirdly inaccessible place. Buses stop early in the evening. The last Glider leaves Wellington Place at 10pm. Excuse me? What? Yet this familiar venue is packed to the rafters and tonight’s…

  • Big Thief at the National Stadium, Dublin

    March 1, 2022 - By 

    Carrying five albums in just seven years under their belt, Big Thief weigh in at the endearingly well-worn National Boxing Stadium with the towel very much not-thrown. Following warm-up act KMRU’s opening platform of ambient environmental sounds the stage set-up is minimal. Additional instrumentation of fiddle, jaw harp, and piano featured on Big Thief’s latest album are nowhere to be seen tonight. This is a group with full confidence in the intimacy and connectedness of its core membership. Adrianne Lenker and guitarist Buck Meek are at opposite ends of the stage. James Krivchenia’s drums are positioned centrally and he is…

  • Jeff Tweedy – Love Is The King

    November 2, 2020 - By 

    Warm, Warmer, Warmest. Jeff Tweedy’s latest collection of homespun wisdom is more inviting and immediate than its predecessors. Recorded in Wilco’s loft studios, arrangements are sparse and to the point, kept conveniently within the family bubble through contributions from his sons Spencer and Sammy. Here I am There it is At the edge Of as bad as it gets The title track’s opening lines and ominous chord progression could be alluding to the coronavirus, Trump, or both. Despite circling back to the refrain of “Love is the king” the clouds never quite lift, abetted by familiar A Ghost is Born-reminiscent electric…

  • The Twilight Sad – It Won/t Be Like This All The Time

    January 18, 2019 - By 

    A few years under the wing of The Cure seems to have pushed The Twilight Sad away from the subdued atmosphere of their last record, Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave. On this, their fourth outing, James Graham, Andy MacFarlane and company revisit the gnawing sinister sadness of 2012’s No One Can Ever Know and ramp up the dense, engulfing atmospherics almost to the same level as their 2007 debut Fourteen Autums and Fifteen Winters Previous albums have gradually eased the listener in the Kilsyth group’s murky world but this time guitarist (and producer) MacFarlane wastes no time jumping in…

  • Jeff Tweedy – Warm

    December 8, 2018 - By 

    “I leave behind A trail of songs From the darkest gloom To the brightest sun” Jeff Tweedy’s alt-Wilco resurgence continues with these eleven new songs of wit and, yes…warmth. The acoustic reimaginations of last year’s Together At Last record aside, Tweedy has tended to conduct his extra-curricular activities in collaboration with his peers (Golden Smog, Loose Fur) or make things a family affair (2014’s Sukierae with son Spencer).This is the first record of new material that bears his name only. Several of the songs have been road-tested during Jeff’s recent solo acoustic tour.  ‘Bombs Above’ is a tentative opening confession…

  • Phosphorescent – C’est La Vie

    October 10, 2018 - By 

    Matthew Houck’s brand of roaming, questing country rock veers firmly into The War on Drugs’ crossover territory with Phosphorescent’s seventh record. Stark, bruised hymns of desolation such as ‘Wolves’ from Pride, or teary travelogues like ‘Mermaid Parade’ found on Here’s To Taking It Easy are not in supply here. After the short instrumental ‘Black Moon/Silver Waves,’ the opening lines of ‘C’est La Vie No. 2’ say as much: “I wrote all night/Like the fire of my words could burn a hole up to heaven/I don’t write all night burning holes up to heaven no more.” Unsurprisingly, the all-conquering ‘Song for Zula’…

  • Pragmatic Endeavour: An Interview with Ben Folds

    April 24, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of his sold-out Belfast show at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and Dublin’s Vicar Street – musician, photographer, talent-show judge, music therapy advocate, and soon-to-be author Ben Folds speaks to Jonny Currie about managing song requests, making the case for arts funding, and balancing artistic instincts without becoming a snob. You’ve performed in Dublin a number of times, but this is your first visit to Belfast. Is there anywhere else in the world you’d still like to play? That’s a big one. I just recently played New Zealand. I’ve played Australia over and over again but just never got to…

  • Franz Ferdinand  – Always Ascending

    February 9, 2018 - By 

    After the Glasgow School of Art was severely damaged by fire in 2014, it was argued that the extensive coverage afforded to this incident was greater than the actual public interest in the Mackintosh-designed institution itself. Some bands, burdened by instant debut success, similarly linger long in the memory of music critics long after the record-buying public has moved on. Enter one-time art school alumni Franz Ferdinand, who have managed to side-step the indie landfill of the mid-noughties by releasing five solid albums (six if we’re including the 2015 collaboration with Sparks) of arch art-pop. And still, they command considerable…

  • Jeff Tweedy @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    February 6, 2018 - By 

    ‘I need to feel uncomfortable’ explains Jeff Tweedy, when asked about his long hair. He hasn’t cut it since the 2016 election he says, and hates it. At the beginning of a year-long hiatus for Wilco, the very same reasoning could be applied to his decision to embark on this short solo acoustic tour across the UK and Ireland. Bookended by ‘Via Chicago’ and ‘Shot In The Arm’ from 1998’s sugar-coated bitter-suite Summerteeth, tonight’s setlist criss-crosses Tweedy’s back catalogue from Uncle Tupelo to recent Wilco release Schmilco, with some surprising omissions along the way. There’s nothing from 2014’s solo/family affair…