• Aoife Nessa Frances – Protector

    October 25, 2022 - By 

    In the spring of 2020, Aoife Nessa Frances escaped Dublin for the west of Ireland, relocating to county Clare on a mission to reconnect with nature and rebuild herself spiritually in the aftermath of her much acclaimed debut Land Of No Junction. The result of this journey of restoration and self-discovery is her remarkable second album, Protector. Recorded in the foothills of Annascaul, a small village located on the Dingle Peninsula at the westernmost point of Ireland and Europe, it’s a dreamlike trip that blossoms and evolves across eight tracks of psychedelic folk rock. ‘Way To Say Goodbye’ welcomes us in…

  • Howe Gelb & Mark McCaulsand at The Court House, Bangor

    October 26, 2022 - By 

    Though often true, the term “good things come to wait” doesn’t always account for the bigger picture. It neglects vision, hard work and perseverance. It disregards the hoop-jumping, private stumbles and many victories along the way. Good things come to wait, yes, but great – often very special – things come to those who take care of all of the above and more. On these shores, Open House Festival is a textbook case in point. Helmed by Kieran Gilmore and Alison Gordon, the not-for-profit charity has long been committed to not only dreaming big but fully investing in the radical…

  • Pillow Queens at Cyprus Avenue, Cork

    October 12, 2022 - By 

    Pillow Queens made a triumphant return to Cyprus Avenue, Cork, this past weekend, having last played in 2021 during that weird phase of the pandemic where people were allowed to aggressively breathe into each other’s mouths at the bar but couldn’t be trusted to stand upright in a half capacity gig venue. At the time, the band opted to pull double duty and played two gigs a day so as to avoid cancelling tickets in what they called their “2 Shows 1 Cup” tour. An inspirational effort in both commitment to their fans and to bad jokes. Those in attendance…

  • I Went to Garth Brooks and It Was Great

    September 21, 2022 - By 

    Let me start this by saying that I’m from The Moy. You know Garth Brooks’ songs by osmosis. They’re in the sheep dip and the wee bottles of McGuigans. We all stand around burning piles of household waste, out the back field, learning them with our cousinwifes. I went with my sister, we both live in Belfast or thereabouts and have the sort of fractured relationship that everyone has when they grow up in a household of people. I can distinctly remember learning all the songs on In Pieces (I had to look up the name of this album as it…

  • Hive City Legacy: Dublin Chapter

    September 14, 2022 - By 

    Hive City Legacy: Dublin Chapter is here to shift the paradigm through dance, poetry, satire and song, mixing concert with social activism. The show is a Hot Brown Honey production. Creators Lisa Fa’alafi and Busty Beatz are joined with hip-hop artist Yami “Rowdy” Löfvenberg and the HCL Dublin ensemble to write the Dublin chapter of the tour. The live theatre production is led by eight femmes of colour. This extraordinary Irish cast consists of singer, songwriter, and poet Jess Kav, Afro-Brazilian dancer Capoeira, performer from Salvador, Alessandra Azevedo, and Irish-Nigerian artist and activist Osaro Azams. They are joined by singer…

  • Review: ABBA Voyage – “It has changed live music and performance forever”

    September 1, 2022 - By 

    Belfast-based Abba stan Shauna McLaughlin makes the pilgrimage to London to review the dazzling and groundbreaking virtual concert Traditionally reviews are written the day after the event. That didn’t happen with this review of ABBA Voyage because that day was spent hanging around outside the Arena in the hope of getting tickets to see it again immediately. Which is an impressive review in itself. The other point I want to make is that you’re better going in knowing nothing about what to expect. I may as well just stop writing here really. ABBA’s virtual concert residency, running since May 2022, with seven…

  • Yawning Chasm – The Golden Hour

    August 31, 2022 - By 

    Galway’s Aaron Coyne has been making music as Yawning Chasm for over a decade now, but has flown conspicuously under the radar in that time. While some releases have come out via Galway’s low key but always excellent Rusted Rail label, others have simply been self-released on Bandcamp with all too little fanfare, including latest – and seventh – album The Golden Hour. While primarily a singer-songwriter, Coyne’s style steers clear of the generic. His unconventional main instrument is the four stringed tenor guitar, perhaps most well-known these days for its use by Warren Ellis on latter day Bad Seeds…

  • Muldoon’s Picnic at Lyric Theatre, Belfast

    August 18, 2022 - By 

    As one of the most fêted literary voices from these shores, Paul Muldoon surely knows there’s no favour in feigning wisdom. It’s an accumulation, not a ransacking—a life’s work sprung from the ups, downs and in-betweens. It’s in knowing that for all one’s ascribed or self-worth, success—like wisdom—is a goose egg without the gaze and concert of others. Produced by Poetry Ireland, and curated by the widely celebrated Co. Armagh poet in question, Muldoon’s Picnic is an omnium-gatherum of poetry, prose and music that takes that essential esprit de corps and sprints with it. Following ten sold-out seasons at the Irish Arts…

  • All Together Now 2022

    August 4, 2022 - By 

    Returning after its forced hiatus, Waterford’s All Together Now festival was back with a bang this weekend, bringing with it one of the most diverse and interesting lineups of any festival this summer. Armed with just his notes app and press pass  -and accompanied by the inimitable Celeste Burdon and her camera – Mike Ryan gives us a glimpse into the odyssey that engulfed Curraghmore Estate for the August bank holiday weekend. Photos by Celeste Burdon I arrive at All Together Now overburdened with probably unnecessary camping equipment, but just in time to catch the back half of The Altered…

  • Dreamachine at Carlisle Memorial Church, Belfast

    July 28, 2022 - By 

    “Whether you experience heaven or hell, remember that it is your mind which creates them.” Six years before Timothy Leary wrote these words in his seminal 1966 text, The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Brion Gysin quite literally saw the light. On a bus journey to Marseille, the British-Canadian artist-inventor had an encounter that could be described as a pretty textbook psychedelic experience — one without the aid of psychotropic drugs, foundational Tibetan guides or anything in between. As the setting sun cut through rapidly-passing trees, Gysin shut his eyes before observing what he called “a…