• 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,…

  • In Review: Choice Music Prize 2014

    March 1, 2014 - By 

    Now in its ninth year, perhaps the most pleasing thing about the Choice Music Prize – the undoubted impact of ten grand in a talented act’s bank account aside – is the chance to slow the pace and take a languid gander at just how much is good about the modern Irish music scene. The annual debate on those who lost out highlights encouraging depth (see Enemies, Nanu Nanu, Axis Of and God Is An Astronaut this year), and – as smaller past winners Julie Feeney, Super Extra Bonus Party, Jape and Adrian Crowley can attest – the award does…

  • St. Vincent @ The Olympia

    February 24, 2014 - By 

    The Olympia Theatre quickly fills up as Slow Skies take to the stage as tonight’s warm-up for the impending spectacle of St Vincent. Possibly to make the latter’s immaculate stage set up possible, the former are down to headcount of three, and squeezed to the front of the stage. With the reduced set up, all the pressure is on the delicately soaring voice of Karen Sheridan (below) to carry them into the attention of the waiting crowd. After a slightly nervous start, she settles into the new surroundings and by the time they swell into on the shore (the lead…

  • The End of an Era? How a Generation Got Beat Pt. 1

    November 27, 2013 - By 

    I looked down at my wrist. I held the scissors in my other hand, almost trembling with excitement. Or was it fear? I couldn’t say. Closing my eyes, I felt the pressure in my fingers, and heard the gentle sound of metal slicing through ribbon. After three years of wearing my ATP 2011 wristband, I removed it, like a surgeon operating on a tumour. I still hadn’t slept properly since The End of an Era Part 1, the first half of the festival’s great farewell, but the magic had been broken. If this was the end, then it was a…

  • Enablers, Blue Whale, Selaah @ Voodoo, Belfast

    November 16, 2013 - By 

    Five years on from wowing a close-knit assembly at Lavery’s Bunker, one of the most distinctive post-rock bands of a generation return to the Belfast tonight dogged and purposeful despite founding guitarist Joe Goldring having his guitar stolen in Dublin the night before. Founded in 2004 and fronted by poet and spoken word artist Pete Simonelli, San Francisco’s Enablers are all but an act unto themselves, their thoroughly immersive brand of abrasive yet introspective instrumentalism propelled by a masterful confrontational voice that just about guarantees special things on the stage time and time again. Kicking off proceedings in typically inimitable fashion…

  • PigsAsPeople, El Ten Eleven, Droids @ Radar

    October 29, 2013 - By 

    Since resuming service in September Radar has hosted numerous strong acts, and tonight proves to top them all, should you have a taste for a bit of noise and jumping around. Droids open the night up with a guitar-led onslaught of enormous chords and hooks, alongside big vocal anthems. They play 30 minutes to a relatively quiet Speakeasy, but the slowly growing numbers in front of them doesn’t put them off. There are more than a few nods given to post-hardcore band Thrice throughout, with distorted walls of sound topped by piercing melodic riffs being a common factor in most of…

  • Mojo Fury – The Difference Between

    October 23, 2013 - By 

    Having successfully completed a pledge campaign to ensure its release, the ever singular Mojo Fury unveil the sprawling mastery of The Difference Between having reignited the fire in the hearts of their fanbase. Considering the almost necessary participation of the latter, not to mention the band’s own open-handed generosity in return, there is a very real sense of both camps being in it together. That said, with the grandiose silhouette of their groundbreaking 2011 debut album Visiting Hours of a Travelling Circus looming large in the background, the question remains: will the Mike Mormecha-fronted band falter in the wake of huge expectation or…

  • Blue Jasmine

    October 10, 2013 - By 

    “This song was playing when we first met, do you know it?” On the surface Blue Jasmine is a portrait of a woman trying to climb back up the social and economic ladder into a life that she had the express elevator to beforehand. But beneath this and beneath the surface of every character in the film there is so much more to find. Woody Allen provides a view into a world that, for most us, is alien in almost every way. Yet through the strength of the writing and brilliant structure of the film, we immediately feel comfortable there,…

  • In Review: Culture Night Belfast 2013

    September 23, 2013 - By 

    With the dust having settled on just about one of the most absorbing nights of art, culture and music that Belfast has ever seen, we gather the thoughts and verdicts of various people who experienced Culture Night Belfast 2013. If the following short selection impressions and opinions isn’t a glowing testament to the power and need for such an annual event, what is? Congratulations to all the participants, organisers and volunteers. We can’t wait for next year already. Andrew Lemon, The Thin Air reviews editor and freelance music writer: “The official attendance figure for this year’s Culture Night stands at 42,000. It’s impressive…

  • Blue Whale – Blue Whale EP

    September 20, 2013 - By 

    Having released three wonderfully wayward “in the studio” live tracks last year Belfast-based four-piece Blue Whale are steadily earning their stripes as one of the country’s most thoroughly forward-thinking bands of a generation. Almost exclusively instrumental in nature, their wonderfully unorthodox brand of hook-filled jazz-punk betrays a collective mentality to stretch the confines of standard deviation, with fun (and having it) unmistakably at that mentality’s root. The question remains, however: how accurately does their four-track self-titled debut EP capture the sheer energy and ingenuity of their live shows? Opening on teasing lead single ‘Was’, there is an immediate sense of transition…