• The Canal

    May 12, 2015 - By 

    “Will you watch this film with me? I’m scared to watch it alone,” begs the grieving and quite possibly insane father at the centre of Dublin-set The Canal. Film watching is a risky business in Irish film-maker Ivan Kavanagh’s broadly familiar but effective combination of domestic dread, malignant spirits and dysfunctional paterfamilias. We open on a slice of yuppie fantasy, with film archivist David (Rupert Evans) and his beautiful pregnant wife Alice (Hannah Hoekstra) meeting an estate agent and cheerfully joyfully agreeing on a lovely townhouse for their burgeoning family unit, a buzzing middle-class aspiration that goes sour. Horror continues…

  • Donal Scullion – Superpowers

    May 12, 2015 - By 

    As an NI Soul Troop mainstay, Donal Scullion is more than familiar with the nuances of jazz, funk and, of course, soul, not to mention the work that goes into arranging tracks that bear those generic attributes.  This is what contributes to Scullion’s grasp of composition and style on his debut solo offering Superpowers; an album that is full of all the tropes of big-band splendour but tows the line quite sweetly between the singer/songwriter and pop-soloist milieus.  In theory, that’s a tall order and not without its pitfalls, but Scullion has obviously approacehed Superpowers with enthusiasm and vigour, and…

  • Le Galaxie w/ Go Wolf @ Aether & Echo, Belfast

    May 11, 2015 - By 

    The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is a Belfast institution, but it’s probably easy for many people to forget about the events that happen away from the festival marquee in Custom House Square, hence a slightly underwhelming turnout at Aether & Echo tonight for the Belfast leg of Le Galaxie’s Le Club tour (or maybe everyone is too glued to tonight’s election coverage). Although the room has filled up quite nicely by the time the headliners take to the stage, tonight’s openers, Belfast’s own Go Wolf play to a sparser audience. Their set is impressively tight and polished, though the music…

  • Shot Glass: Three Strikes @ CQAF

    May 8, 2015 - By 

    On Tuesday night, Shot Glass theatre performed the second night of Three Strikes at Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, in the unusual surrounds of the Dark Horse Bar. A new concept in live theatre, Shot Glass bring edgy, dark theatre right into the pub. At three discreet tables in the bar, the protagonists sit, waiting their moment, the crowd having to twirl around to see from which corner the voice is coming. From Mary Jordan’s effortlessly cool account of her unusual application of Brazil Nuts and her husband’s subsequent demise to Gerry Crossan’s delightfully bizarre rant as ‘Blow-Dry Barry’ the pub goers…

  • The Shadow of a Gunman @ Lyric Theatre

    May 8, 2015 - By 

    As the curtain, a modest, brown thing, rises to reveal its equally meager setting (a tenement in Dublin in 1920) the most immediately apparent quality of the set is how much it breathes. Two large windows at the back of the small apartment looking on to the alley beyond create so much space and character that its easy to forget we are in a theatre. A woman hangs her washing, people walk to and fro about their business and the set comes to life. Mr. Davoren lives in this apartment, rooming with Mr. Shields. Hampered by the characters that exist…

  • Dublin Gay Theatre Festival: Going Up @ Teacher’s Club

    May 7, 2015 - By 

    Debuting a boisterous story of Manhattan in a quiet corner of Dublin, Penny Jackson’s Going Up launches the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival with an intimate and whimsical charm. Played by two performers, the one-hour piece ensnares two incompatible characters in a frustrating scenario: a stuck elevator. One is short, straight, neurotic to the point of heart failure, and unnervingly loud. The other is tall, gay, composed to the last stroke of eye-shadow, and equally loud. At first glance, the situation reads as a hackneyed setup where the fun lies in watching opposing forces collide while finding unlikely commonalities. Yet…

  • little xs for eyes w/ Paddy Hanna @ Whelan’s, Dublin

    May 6, 2015 - By 

    Kicking things off nicely is Paddy Hanna with his introspective, delicate folk. His greatest, and most striking strength is his voice, reminiscent of BBC’s Jack Steadman, Alt-J’s Joe Newman and even our own Conor O’Brien. His mellow, gossamer guitar playing may be lost on the early crowd who are yet to break from their tight circles and shadowy corners. But in Paddy, though no stage master, there’s clearly something to like for lovers of the genre. The crowd begins to grow. Mid week gigs are all the thing it seems. But then again, who wouldn’t want to get out of…

  • Public Service Broadcasting w/ Smoke Fairies @ Mandela Hall, Belfast

    May 5, 2015 - By 

    Belfast’s Mandela Hall has consistently been something of a mecca for artists, bands and gig-goers in Northern Ireland, so it’s always a delight heading down those stairs into the darkness for a night of live music and good times. Life’s little pleasures, eh? And pleasurable it most certainly would be (sort of), with our eager ears anticipating Public Service Broadcasting and their brand of indie/electronica meets samplers/instrumental sonic space adventures. We arrive sharpish with a few dozen others, making our way down into the Mandela Hall and are pleasantly surprised by a promising turnout so early in the night. It’s…

  • Le Galaxie @ Roisin Dubh, Galway

    May 5, 2015 - By 

    On this, the first night of Le Galaxie’s Irish tour following the launch of their whopper new album Le Club in The Academy over the course of two nights at the end of April, the atmosphere in the Roisín Dubh is whirring with excitement. This excitement is not that of going to see a concert however; the giddy punters don’t appear to be just anxiously anticipating the arrival of their entertainment for the night.  Instead, it feels like the crowd are all guests at some gratuitous party. It’s all colour and laughter and anticipation of what the hosts, those cool…