• The Top 10 Sets at Body & Soul 2018

    June 26, 2018 - By 

    Body & Soul has quickly become one of Ireland’s biggest festivals and this year it’s as popular as ever despite a small downsizing in music acts. 2018 easily established the festival as one of Ireland’s best with a carefully curated line up and one of the safest, most inclusive festival experiences around. With an amazing presence of queer culture (it was impossible to go for more than a few minutes without seeing a pride flag) and a wholesome, local festival despite its increasing popularity, Body & Soul 2018 made for an exceedingly fun festival. Here’s our top ten sets from…

  • The National w/ John Grant @ Energia Park, Dublin

    June 19, 2018 - By 

    The National just can’t seem to stay away from Dublin. Not ten months since their intimate double-bill at Vicar St., they made their return this Friday, nestled away in the leafy Donnybrook suburbs at the Energia/Donnybrook Stadium, for their own miniature two-day festival, with support acts including Lisa Hannigan, John Grant, Villagers and Rostam. The Friday gig featured the aforementioned Lisa Hannigan and John Grant, as well as Jay Som, and Preoccupations. Not your typical outdoor venue, this weekend was an opportunity for Donnybrook Stadium to showcase itself as one – with surprisingly strong acoustics, and the high suburban trees…

  • Primavera Sound 2018

    June 15, 2018 - By 

    Four Tet – Credit: Sergio Albert Disclaimer: The punctuality of this review was brought to you by Vueling Airlines, whose inability to deal with two hours of stormy weather resulted in several hundred failing to make it home for up to 4 days without compensation – half this site’s editorial team included. We recommend sacrificing some extra budget allocation on transport. It’s easy to stress the festival experience with its clashes, transport and accommodation woes, but once you’ve arrived at Primavera Sound, it’s all vibes; that soft coastal breeze – and a €1 street Estrella to cushion the sun’s blow…

  • Giant Sand @ Whelan’s, Dublin

    June 13, 2018 - By 

    No word in the English language sums up Howe Gelb’s ever-mutating life’s work Giant Sand more than idiosyncratic. Threaded through by just one man and his broad-ranging – oft. cowpunk – plays on the idioms of Americana and the topics he’s always held dear: love, death, humour & wanderlust, never straying too far from wryly homespun existentialism. Despite a few of indefinite hiatuses in the last few years, Giant Sand’s original lineup were reconvened for a complete rerecording of their debut LP, a scattershot snapshot of 35 years ago accompanied by members of Gelb’s LA & Tuscon circles at the…

  • Metá Metá @ Black Box, Belfast

    June 11, 2018 - By 

    Two years have passed since Metá Metá’s memorable gig at the Crescent Arts Centre as part of Moving On Music’s Beat Root festival. The São Paulo band’s incendiary performance that evening was all the more remarkable given the absence of saxophonist Thiago  França  forced to spend the night in a Belfast hospital due to a virus. Without him, vocalist Juçara Marçal, guitarist/vocalist Kiko Dinucci, electric bassist Marcelo Cabral and drummer Sergio Machada served up a heady brew of indie rock laced with Afro-Brazilian and psychedelic colors. Back to full strength for its return trip to Belfast, Metá Metá greets Black…

  • Xylouris White @ Black Box, Belfast

    June 2, 2018 - By 

    A lute and drum kit doesn’t sound like a combination that should really work, but in this post-genre age almost anything goes. And, when the musicians in question are veritable virtuosos, as is the case with Cretan laouto player George Xylouris and Australian-born, New York-based drummer Jim White, then the results are nothing short of spectacular. This duo already had a dozen European gigs under its belt in support of its third album, Mother (Bella Union, 2017), which was just as well, as the late arrival of the lute-like lauto-temporarily lost in transit-meant there was no time for a sound-check.…

  • Father John Misty @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    May 31, 2018 - By 

    Father John Misty’s brand of quip laden folk rock has garnered him a loyal following. One that has seen him sell out not one but three nights in Dublin’s Vicar Street. On a humid Monday Night, an enthusiastic but somewhat subdued crowd gathered for the first showing. Bearded men wearing t-shirts adorning their idol seem at odds with the singer’s anti-capitalist persona but I guess that’s just rock and roll. Support on the night comes from Saint Leonard, formerly known as Kieran Leonard, a known associate of The Libertines and Misty alike. Under the guise of Saint Leonards Horses, a…

  • BBC Biggest Weekend @ Titanic Slipways, Belfast – Friday

    May 28, 2018 - By 

    The first signs of 6 Music’s leg of the Biggest Weekender have been appearing at venues all over Belfast this last week. Gigs, seminars, panels and outside broadcasts cropping up daily, heralding the 2 days at Titanic Slipways. For day 1 of festivities, the city, bathed in uncharacteristically glorious weather, conspires to show off just when everyone happens to be paying attention. As the flow of people moving through the city and over the Lagan grows, a Cup Final atmosphere begins to build, smiles and easy conversation with anyone willing to respond are the order of the day, and in…

  • Beck & Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ 3Arena, Dublin

    May 24, 2018 - By 

    Both the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Beck have crafted careers built on distinct sonic styles. Their music captured time and place; Beck encapsulates an era within the 90s pushing towards innovation by blending genres within one record, whilst Yeah Yeah Yeahs defined the New York dance-punk sound of the early 2000s. Their cult statuses, born from albums like Odelay and Fever To Tell, respectively, gives them mass-appeal to a myriad of music fans. The pairing of these artists for this one off joint headline arena gig, then, feels appropriate given the impact their music has made on an incalculable number…

  • Ben Folds @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast

    May 14, 2018 - By 

    Ben Folds is a consummate master of contrast. Equally adept at playing plaintive ballads as he is at belting out looney tunes rock and roll, he comes across as a younger, only slightly less grizzled Randy Newman. Folds’ lyrics certainly have the same bite, and are similarly coupled with ear-worm melodies that belie the sardonic nature of the subject matter hiding in plain sight. So, during this evening’s lengthy set the audience is treated to particularly poetic versions of ‘Still Fighting It’, a beautiful tableau of a father-son relationship, and ‘Fred Jones Part 2’, another of Folds’ character studies whose…