• Arnocorps, Scimitar @ The Speakeasy, Belfast

    July 28, 2014 - By 

    “GET TO THE CHOPPA!”, an excitable fan bellows outside Queen’s Students Union as I’m getting out of a taxi. At least, I can only assume he’s a fan. Not only is his hollered missive straight out of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 classic muscles-n-monster movie, Predator, but it is delivered in a faux Austrian accent with a decidedly South Belfast twang. Oh, that and the fact that he is dressed from head to toe in military style tactical gear, his side-arm swapped out for a Nerf Maverick revolver. And he has a squadron of similarly attired comrades backing up his six. At…

  • Festival Diary: With Full Force 2014

    July 19, 2014 - By 

    What better way to kick of the July than with German beer, super sunny skies, BBQs and some hardcore and metal? Takingplace on the first weekend of July in Roitzschjora Airfield, Löbnitz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, With Full Force sees its twenty-first outing this weekend, packing in some of the very best acts in their respective, varyingly heavy fields. I fly in to Berlin the day before to avoid the bulk of people who normally arrive on the first day, catching a coach down to Liepzig and spending the journey joking and discussing bands with two other festival goers. Having met with…

  • Cat Power, Arborist @ Empire Music Hall

    July 16, 2014 - By 

    The queue waiting outside Belfast’s Empire Music Hall to buy tickets as doors open tonight shows there a lack of belief Chan Marshall would make it to Belfast again but she still manages to attract a crowd. Ranging from suited-up hipsters to middle-aged couples dressed for a night out, there is a massive amount of interest in seeing the reinvigorated Cat Power make up for the cancelled tour dates of 2012. As the room fills there is a sense of anticipation building in the intimate venue to see what Chan Marshall delivers. The support for the evening is Belfast-based band…

  • The Sisters of Mercy @ Mandela Hall, Belfast

    July 10, 2014 - By 

    Legendary gothic rockers The Sisters of Mercy descended upon Belfast on Tuesday, July 8, bringing their impressively large collection of hits with them.The band, who haven’t released any new music since 1992, are perennial live favourites, and their Belfast date didn’t disappoint, drawing a large crowd of the children of the night to shake their slightly unfunky stuff.Our resident goths Peter McCaughan and Steven Rainey were there, and in a change from usual programming, they bring us this bite-sized audio review, capturing the sights, sounds, and occasionally smells, of what went down. Photos by Dee McAvoy Audio Review: Sisters of Mercy…

  • Anthrax @ Limelight 1, Belfast

    July 2, 2014 - By 

    It’s been a good week for speed metal fans in Belfast with not one but two Slayer gigs, followed by tonight’s long awaited show from Noo Yoik’s nonpareils of noise, Anthrax. That’s 50% of the ‘Big Four’ of thrash on the same modestly sized Limelight stage, while Metallica are headlining Glastonbury and Megadeth are off, I don’t know, probably offending a minority group. Yea, verily, it is the season of metal. If the audience are beginning to feel a little spoilt they certainly don’t show it, piling into the venue as soon as doors open and readily assuming the position…

  • Arcade Fire, Pixies @ Marlay Park

    July 1, 2014 - By 

    The first of the Marlay Park summer shows kick off with the rather unusual pairing of Arcade Fire and Pixies. The chamber-pop grandness of Arcade Fire is a world away from the alt-rock rawness of Pixies, and so there seems to be two divisions of fans among the crowd; those for Pixies and those for Arcade Fire. Not that this led to any trouble or violence of course; it merely creates an atmosphere where some fans appear somewhat uninterested in half the show. Pixies bring  their manic alt-rock to the stage with plenty of gusto and hit home from the off…

  • Jurassic 5 @ Vicar Street

    June 19, 2014 - By 

    Excitement’s been building for this, the latter of two sell-out shows in Dublin’s Vicar Street as part of Jurassic 5’s reunion tour, ever since the six original members appeared onstage for the first time since 2006 at Coachella last year, featuring DJ Cut Chemist’s return to the fold after he left the group for the old chestnut of ‘musical differences’ in the months prior to the recording of their final album – the least true representation of the qualities that gave J5 their reputation in the first place – Feedback. As Cut Chemist and his foil, Nu-Mark, enter the eyeline, what’s…

  • Bob Dylan – 02, Dublin

    June 19, 2014 - By 

    Six decades, thirty five studio albums and several reinventions in, it has long been a certified fact that Bob Dylan – showing few signs of slowing down at seventy-three – has no-one or nothing left to prove. With his critically-acclaimed thirty-fifth album, Tempest, once more stoking the embers of his altogether extraordinary career, a varied legion of hardened fans and sprightly newcomers to the Sacred Word of Dylan converge to Dublin’s 02 tonight for a concert that could well be filed under the “Mass” on Ticketmaster. The question remains, however: how many of tonight’s mixed audience will leave content having spent top dollar for a show that has little interest in…

  • Angel Olsen @ Whelan’s

    June 10, 2014 - By 

    Angel Olsen takes to the stage of Whelan’s on the first leg of a three date tour of Ireland surrounded by a three-piece backing band to a highly anticipatory Dublin audience. The Missouri born singer has taken quite a jump forward in popularity this year with the release of her second album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness, which has established Olsen as not only a force to be reckoned with, but also the aforementioned release as an early contender for standout album of the year. You get the impression that the album has both cemented her talent and credibility…

  • The Eagles @ The 02, Dublin

    June 9, 2014 - By 

    “We’re not doing this for the money. We’re not doing it because we’re borrrred. We’re doing it because it’s the greatest fucking job in the world” – Don Henley. There’s a tacit acknowledgement in the title of this latestEagles tour, ‘The History of the Eagles’, that things might finally be edging towards a conclusion. While central characters Henley and Glenn Frey haven’t publicly decided whether things will continue beyond the tours 2015 conclusion, it has been seven years since The Eagles last put out anything new worth mentioning, and even Long Road Out Of Eden was the only release since 1979. Six…