• Neutral Milk Hotel @ Vicar Street

    May 19, 2014 - By 

    Indie cult legends Neutral Milk Hotel paid Dublin a visit on Friday night. As elusive and mysterious as ever, they banned the presence of photographers and indeed any photo-taking devices whatsoever; the absence of tiny bright lights among the crowd proving a startlingly refreshing experience. Jeff Mangum himself is an enigmatic presence, skulking at the side of the stage, hiding behind his bushy beard and a cap that concealed his eyes. He barely speaks a word all evening, but that’s to be expected from a man who has shied away from the spotlight throughout his career, and it’s the music that…

  • De La Soul w/ Joe Lindsay @ CQAF

    May 13, 2014 - By 

    Tonight, as the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival sadly draws to its inevitable close, Belfast is fortunate enough to have hip hop royalty De La Soul performing at Custom House Square, ensuring that the festival should go out with a bang. An oldskool hip hop sort of bang, rather. Upon arriving at tonight’ s venue, mingling throngs of hip hop fans old and young line up in eager anticipation of what’s starting to look like a belter of an evening. Through the entrance to the square, there are a few of the usual vendors selling their cold, delicious, life giving, good-time-having beery…

  • CQAF: Yuck & Bouts @ Black Box

    May 3, 2014 - By 

    Just over a year since their founding member – and central songwriting force – Daniel Blumberg jumped ship to focus on his own music, English indie rock darlings Yuck make their highly-anticipated return to Belfast tonight something of a wounded but defiant soldier. Indeed, with a new EP, Southern Skies, getting a mixed reaction from critics and aficionados alike, there is an unspoken feeling in the air that the band have both reputation to uphold and repertoire to deliver. One wonders: whether they care to confront the question or not, are they able and set to confound the likely ill-founded theories of the detractors? With the Black Box…

  • Hope is Noise @ The Pavilion

    May 2, 2014 - By 

    In the process of getting out to this gig, venturing out on a wet Thursday night, your writer wrenches his ankle, and as a result, spends the next 20 minutes hobbling to the Pavilion, just in time to miss most of debuting Cork/Italian lads The Order of the Mess‘ power-duo noise-rock assault. Their stuff on Soundcloud paints a rough but promising picture, that of a multifaceted, but bludgeoningly weighty aural attack. They’re well-received here. Settling in for Hope is Noise getting on with setup, it’s a decent crowd that litters the bar of the Pav, especially right before a Bank…

  • Stiff Little Fingers @ The Academy

    March 14, 2014 - By 

    Jake Burns must surely hold the record for longest gestation period for a song in modern rock history. Back in 1983 when Stiff Little Fingers broke up, Burns met up with another singer from an Irish band who was in the same situation and they lamented their respective losses over a pint, or many. Burns went home and wrote the lyrics to ‘When We Were Young’, but it took him another thirty-five years to get around to the music. Phil Lynott was the man he shared his commiserations with back in that long-ago boozer, Burns tells the crowd in The…

  • Haim @ The Olympia, Dublin

    March 13, 2014 - By 

    The Thin Air is packed into the standing section of Haim’s sold-out show in Dublin and we are very excited. For the best part of the last year, the music of the Californian sororal trio has dominated our music library; stubbornly refusing to let us tire of debut album Days Are Gone. Any niggling concerns that the live experience will disappoint disappear instantly as the coltish Haim sisters march on stage to an enormous Irish roar. They jump straight in, starting with ‘Falling’, and thus begins a show which does not ask for but rather grips your full attention.  Delivering…

  • Maximo Park @ Limelight 2

    March 7, 2014 - By 

    Well and truly at the height of their indie-rock powers, Maximo Park are on the last leg of their European tour when they arrive in Belfast – and that very fact is backed up by what’s to be undeniably tight performance from the Newcastle band tonight. Starting, in true ‘album promo’ style, with the opening track off the new album, Give, Get, Take, the band set the bar for a highly energetic and for the most part, fast paced set of hip shuffling dance moves and near keyboard destruction chaos. With remarkably only one track from 2009’s Quicken The Heart on the list,…

  • In Review: Choice Music Prize 2014

    March 1, 2014 - By 

    Now in its ninth year, perhaps the most pleasing thing about the Choice Music Prize – the undoubted impact of ten grand in a talented act’s bank account aside – is the chance to slow the pace and take a languid gander at just how much is good about the modern Irish music scene. The annual debate on those who lost out highlights encouraging depth (see Enemies, Nanu Nanu, Axis Of and God Is An Astronaut this year), and – as smaller past winners Julie Feeney, Super Extra Bonus Party, Jape and Adrian Crowley can attest – the award does…

  • St. Vincent @ The Olympia

    February 24, 2014 - By 

    The Olympia Theatre quickly fills up as Slow Skies take to the stage as tonight’s warm-up for the impending spectacle of St Vincent. Possibly to make the latter’s immaculate stage set up possible, the former are down to headcount of three, and squeezed to the front of the stage. With the reduced set up, all the pressure is on the delicately soaring voice of Karen Sheridan (below) to carry them into the attention of the waiting crowd. After a slightly nervous start, she settles into the new surroundings and by the time they swell into on the shore (the lead…

  • The 1975 @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    February 21, 2014 - By 

    “Do you like cabbage and bacon?” and “Will you go to my formal with me?” are just a sample of the rather odd questions posed to Matthew Healy and Adam Hann from The 1975, by a giggle of teenage girls. The Thin Air was at a local radio station to see a private acoustic set prior to their headline slot in the Ulster Hall. We were the oldest people there. While the band played quite beautiful acoustic versions of their singles ‘Sex’ and ‘Chocolate’, their fans snapped photos excitedly, making us slightly sad that their full attention wasn’t focused on what…