• Tease-O-Rama @ CQAF, Belfast

    May 5, 2015 - By 

    It’s cold, wet, and your writer is standing outside a metal fence at Custom House Square. “Why,” you ask? Well, as Soup DuJour herself quoted “Outside it may be tragic, but in here we feel it’s magic!” It’s time for a very special Tease-O-Rama at Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. We enter the massive marquee; its black ceiling is strung with lights to emulate a night sky – setting the tone for a majestic show indeed. The night is kicked off with a jazz and swing set by J.B. & the Riviera Swing Band. Breaking out classics such as ‘The Lady Is a Tramp’, ‘Beyond the…

  • Irish Tour: Calexico

    May 6, 2015 - By 

    You may be aware of Calexico from Tucson, Arizona. Their many, many records may be in your peripheral vision, or you may have heard the band of uber-talented multi-instrumentalists lend atmosphere to the soundtracks of Dead Man’s Shoes, Collateral and The Guard. However, you will not have truly experienced Calexico until you have seen them play a concert, where their music bristles and blares and is full of infectious vibrancy. Not content to take the easy route of playing the latest album song by song, exactly as they sound on said album, or trotting out a set-list of greatest hits,…

  • Irish Tour: The Charlatans

    May 5, 2015 - By 

    Opening with an extended version of ‘Forever’ and followed by the undeniable Madchester groove of ‘Weirdo’, The Charlatans get their CQAF headline gig off to an expectedly strong start, following a reportedly equally triumphant show in Dublin the night before. New album tracks like ‘Talking In Tones’ and ‘So Oh’ sound more like 1995 than 2015 and are welcomed like old favourites. However, the starry-roofed tent inhabitants explode with collective excitement as the fan favourites of ‘North Country Boy’, ‘One To Another’ – a song that’s been given a new generation of fans through soundtracking the E4 sitcom My Mad Fat…

  • CQAF: Josh Rouse @ Black Box, Belfast

    May 6, 2015 - By 

    “Och wise up!” chimes a female voice from a few rows back. Josh Rouse – smartly dressed in double denim and a dapper hat, gifted with a sweet, sleepy voice – has just announced that he is about to play his last song, and has been roundly chastised in the most affectionate way possible. The fact that the end of Rouse’s gig has been met with such a fine example of the Northern Irish vernacular should indicate how warmly his performance has been received. There is, to reach for that hoary cliché, a lot of love in the room –…

  • The Twilight Sad @ Voodoo, Belfast

    May 6, 2015 - By 

    It’s the final show of a ten-week trek across Europe and North America for The Twilight Sad. Front man James Graham tells the Belfast crowd his “liver is fucked.” The relief in his voice sets the tone for a breathless set taking in highlights from their back catalogue alongside half of the tracks from their fantastic fourth album Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave. The Twilight Sad’s gloomy intensity is utterly compelling from start to finish. They begin working through the gears with ‘There’s A Girl In The Corner’ and ‘Last January’ from the new album,…

  • San Fermin @ Whelan’s, Dublin

    May 1, 2015 - By 

    Fresh off the release of sophomore album Jackrabbit, Brooklyn-based San Fermin returns to Dublin exactly one year after their debut performance in Ireland. Largely the brainchild of composer and lyricist Ellis Ludwig-Leone, a composition major from Yale University, San Fermin’s style plays to a variety of influence ranging folk, jazz, and pop, with an element of high refinement in each musical mannerism. The eight-piece ensemble, including two men on brass and an electric violinist, excites in a way that is hard to categorize. Ellis’ lyrics mystify the abstract while painting a visceral picture of emotion, yet the robust vocals of…

  • Flying Lotus @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    May 1, 2015 - By 

    With the doors to Vicar Street, Dublin, opening at 7.30pm, our approach was somewhat cautious.  Surely there won’t be anybody here? We’re a bit early, right? WRONG. As we turned the corner, tickets in hand and anticipation set to almost uncomfortable levels, we were psyched to see a few hundred people milling about outside the entrance, all as giddy and as anxious to get inside as us, for a night featuring none other than the inimitable, the glorious, the Captain himself, Flying Lotus. It’s a strange, but welcome experience too, entering the cavernous venue so early and seeing it so…

  • Sharon Van Etten @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    April 24, 2015 - By 

    It was inevitable given the locale and the name of tonight’s performer that the words of Georgie fucking Burgess – indelibly etched into the minds of every Irish person of a certain generation – would be proffered in the direction of the stage. “That was A1, Sharon” – not just hollow, borrowed words in this instance, but a snappy summation of a fine performance bathed in the warm glow of the Vicar Street stage. Sharon Van Etten coos a “hello” to the chattering crowd, quietening them for a time as the five-piece band begins ‘Afraid Of Nothing’. Dark shades and…

  • Ciaran Lavery & Ryan Vail – Sea Legs

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    While people will continue to argue tirelessly about whether the internet has been a good or a bad thing for music, here comes another argument for ‘good’. Derry minimal electronic musician Ryan Vail and Aghagallon alt-folkster Ciaran Lavery first became friends online before finally meeting up at a festival they were both appearing at and decided to collaborate on this mini-album. Regardless of whether or not you think streaming music is as bad as killing elephants like Tom DeLonge claims, the sense of community that the internet affords to bring together musicians from different musical backgrounds to try out collaborations…

  • I, Banquo @ Lyric Theatre, Belfast

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    Written by Tim Crouch, I, Banquo is a retelling of Macbeth from the perspective of his dead friend Banquo. As the play begins the ghost of the titular character rises from the floor and tells us his version of events, from the fateful meeting with the three sisters to the gruesome finale. Banquo addresses us as Macbeth and asks us to question our own motives and desires along with the other characters in the play and leaves us wondering if perhaps we’ve misunderstood. Directed by Oisin Kearney and performed by Michael Patrick, the pair take a low-budget approach and use…