• 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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,…