• BadBadNotGood @ The Sugar Club, Dublin

    June 29, 2017 - By 

    Seven months ago, BadBadNotGood performed to a modest crowd during the early part of Metropolis Festival’s inaugural evening. Earlier this week, having recently played at Bonnaroo and Glastonbury, the Canadian quartet played two sold-out shows in The Sugar Club, taking time out of festival slots to put on a show where their music was the sole focus. BBNG are known for their innovative approach to composing intricately textured, experimental jazz infused hip hop instrumentals that speak to even the staunchest purist of either genre.  Their debut release on Bandcamp, I, caught the attention of Odd Future leader Tyler, The Creator…

  • Paramore @ Olympia Theatre, Dublin

    June 16, 2017 - By 

    It’s been a long time since Tennessee natives, Paramore, last brought their show to Irish shores and by the look of the massive queue outside the Olympia two hours before open doors, Ireland has certainly missed them. Opening act, California’s Bleached, set the pace with a raucous set of female-led punk rock. Bringing to mind 90s riot grrrl with a touch of surf rock, they play an uncompromising set of punk rock anthems. Whilst the music is a small bit lost on a large majority of the crowd, they’re a promising act and, as an opening act, send out a…

  • Irish Tour: Mitski

    June 12, 2017 - By 

    The mighty Mitski live at Belfast’s Empire Music Hall and Dublin’s Whelan’s. Words by Aoife O’Donoghue, photos by Sara Marsden and Pedro Giaquinto. Empire Music Hall, Belfast Photos by Sara Marsden Whelan’s, Dublin Photos by Pedro Giaquinto Fresh from her show in the Workman’s club last September, Mitski made a welcome return to Ireland this week, playing not one, but three locations; Cyprus Avenue in Cork, The Empire in Belfast, and finishing up in Whelans in Dublin. The New York-based artist has quickly grown to prominence and praise after four albums, her latest being Puberty 2, released last June, and…

  • Primavera 2017

    June 8, 2017 - By 

    After 16 years, there’s no doubt that Primavera is Europe’s premier festival, for everyone from the capped-up indie kids to right-on middle-agers seeking some escapism, from the techno heads on through to High Fidelity type nerf herders and vinyl hoarders. So: how does Europe’s best music festival follow up on a last year’s best-ever edition – a mammoth lineup topped by Radiohead. Well, partially through sticking with what works – every sub-genre well catered for and then some, and not just on the three main days at Parc del Forum, but in venues across the city in the preceding weeks.…

  • Forbidden Fruit 2017

    June 7, 2017 - By 

    With photos courtesy of Lucy Foster, Eoghain Meakin reports back from Forbidden Fruit at the weekend, featuring Aphex Twin, Bon Iver, Flying Lotus, Moderat, Orbital and more. Saturday Turn off Facebook, no one needs to see those sunny pictures coming in from Spain. Instead check YR there or Accuweather so we can time the rain falls. Because today is the first day of Forbidden Fruit, the festival on your doorstep and a bit of rain is an inconvenience not an inhibitor round here. However it does have its immediate drawbacks; clogging the entrance system as people attempt to shove their…

  • Damo Suzuki w/ Blue Whale & Paul Stapleton and Robocobra Quartet @ Black Box, Belfast

    May 29, 2017 - By 

    When former Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit died in January this year, the tributes that poured in were a potent reminder, if one were needed, of just how influential the krautrock pioneers were. With the German band’s original American vocalist Malcolm Mooney leaving the band at the dawn of the 70s, erstwhile Japanese busker Damo Suzuki was installed in time for 1971’s seminal Tago Mago, remaining with the group for the equally classic Ege Bamyasi and Future Days, albums that within just a few short years were influencing Berlin-era Bowie and the entire post-punk scene, not to mention countless rock bands…

  • Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh & Cormac Begley @ An Droichead, Belfast

    May 19, 2017 - By 

    There was double reason for celebration at An Droichead – South Belfast’s primary centre of Irish language and culture. Firstly, there had been the launch earlier that day of the Belfast Traditional Music Trail. This initiative, to be held every Saturday afternoon, presents traditional Irish music to all-comers, on a trail that traverses the Cathedral Quarter – taking in some of the city’s most iconic pubs. Then, just a few hours later, a full house at An Droichead welcomed fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh   and concertina player Cormac Begley – two of the finest exponents of their respective instruments in Ireland…

  • April Verch Band @ The Old Courthouse, Antrim

    May 15, 2017 - By 

    Antrim’s The Old Courthouse was a fitting venue for the April Verch Band, which brought its vibrant, fiddle-based Americana to a building that dates to 1776. Fitting because, in a way, fiddler and step dancer Verch was bringing the music home. In the seventeen hundreds over a hundred thousand Irish left home to begin a new life in North America, bringing with them their fiddle music, songs and dance traditions, and these roots — amongst others — were evident during a captivating ninety-minute show. Of course, along with the Ulster-Scotts/Irish came the Scottish, French and Polish — amongst multiple nationalities…

  • The Big Moon @ The Academy, Dublin

    May 2, 2017 - By 

    With doors open at a very early 6:30pm and a no-alcohol policy to boot, the gig may have advertised itself as rather low-key in scope to anyone new to The Big Moon. This train of thought would’ve been a fatal mistake as the London band thundered their way through a blistering set that surely won over everyone present in Academy 2 on the night. Irish band Pillow Queens got the night off to a lively blend of music aligned somewhat to 90s pop-punk, playing music from their 2016 EP Calm Girls alongside future releases. The crowd are energised by their performance,…

  • The Sad and Beautiful World of Sparklehorse @ The MAC, Belfast

    April 10, 2017 - By 

    Few events in Belfast are likely to be as emotionally charged as this evening’s tribute to Sparklehorse. Anyone familiar with the band’s output -and it immediately transpires that not one soul in tonight’s intimate gathering does not hold every beat, note and lyric in their hearts – will already know that frontman Mark Linkous took his own life seven years ago. That fact, tragically, is unavoidable, and there is certainly no avoiding the spectral shadow that such an unnecessary and painful loss casts over the entirety of Linkous’ back catalogue. It is impossible to listen to his music without feeling…