• The Patti Smith Quartet at Vicar Street, Dublin

    June 29, 2024 - By 

    Excitement was running high in Vicar Street as folk at the sold-out gig on Thursday, June 27 waited for Patti Smith to come on stage. She did so to rapturous applause and a few shouts of “We love you, Patti”. Smiling and relaxed, she put her hand on her heart and said “And I love you, too”. Attired in her customary black jeans, white tee, waistcoat and black jacket, she told us that she’d had to swap her black boots for her white Keds trainers because the boots had been sticking to the carpeted stage. Joined by her son Jackson…

  • Patti Smith: Godmother of Punk – and my Hero

    June 11, 2024 - By 

    From fortuitous meetings to a deep love of her craft, much-loved Belfast music fan and tour guide Dolores Vischer reflects on a life-long affinity for the undisputed Godmother of Punk, Patti Smith, ahead of shows at Vicar Street in Dublin on 27th and 28th June Patti Smith has been an important figure in my life; she is my all-time favourite artist. I first heard her Horses album in 1975, as an impressionable young teenager of 14.  Her voice, attitude, mix of poetry and rock hooked me there and then – before I’d ever heard of punk. Punk music remains one…

  • Patti Smith To Play Two Dates at Vicar Street

    December 12, 2023 - By 

    Patti Smith has announced two dates in Dublin next year. The legendary American singer-songwriter and poet will play two (relatively) intimate shows at Vicar Street on Thursday 27th and Friday 28th June 2024. Presented by Foggy Notions, the performances will see Smith perform alongside her band the Patti Smith Quartet. Presale is available now via Foggy Notions and general sale is 10am this Friday, December 15th. Revisit a stone-cold Smith classic from 1975 below.

  • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds w/ Patti Smith @ Royal Hospital, Kilmainham

    June 8, 2018 - By 

    In this hyperbolic age, the phrase “gig of the year” gets tossed about far too flippantly. Every experience must be the best as anything less than perfection is worthless. The thing is though, most concerts couldn’t lay claim to that title. But very occasionally, there is a lineup that makes your jaw drop and forces you to question whether or not this could be the one. On 6 June 2018, Kilmainham played host to one of those shows: Patti Smith supporting Nick Cave. Either of these artists could have been the headliner and no one would be disappointed. They each…

  • Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Patti Smith Set For Kilmainham Show

    October 18, 2017 - By 

    In what’s in no uncertain terms the finest outdoor show Ireland will probably see in 2018, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds play their first date on the isle in over a decade at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on Wednesday, June 6. This follows a select few UK dates that managed to previously avoid us, in support of his latest album, the universally acclaimed Skeleton Tree. It was accompanied with a deeply moving documentary film, One More Time With Feeling, created to promote the album without having to talk about the tragic circumstances surrounding it. That The Bad Sees are on the bill is triumph enough,…

  • Patti Smith, Spiritualized & Ariel Pink @ Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin

    June 3, 2015 - By 

    The last remnants of the Forbidden Fruit stages are being taken down. A few straggling food tents and vans are dotted around the edges of the field beside the obligatory Bulmers festival stands. And the rain is pouring down. It’s only through an organisational miracle that this gig is going ahead at all, really. What was originally meant to be an outdoors affair has instead been forced into two big tops, meaning that those who were lucky enough to secure tickets are tightly squeezed in. However, the lack of space in no way impacts on the energy at tonight’s triumvirate…

  • Playlist: National Poetry Day

    October 3, 2013 - By 

    We’re humongous fans of poetry here at The Thin Air. As far as we’re concerned, the very best poetry is far superior to a very good song or album – the syllabic genius of a handful of rhyming conquistadors down the ages faring in a realm of incisive mastery that has little to no parallel in any other sphere of the arts. As it so happens, today is National Poetry Day and as we are also humongous fans of lovingly-assembled Spotify playlists of pretty much anything under the recordable sun, we have compiled a fifteen-track playlist of poetry (and music containing…