• Irish Tour: Villagers w/ Somerville

    February 1, 2016 - By 

    With support from Somerville, Villagers enthralled Dublin’s Vicar Street and Galway’s Black Box Theatre on Thursday and Friday night. Words by Eoin Murray. Photos by Mark Earley and Vincent Hughes. Vicar Street, Dublin Photos by Mark Earley Black Box Theatre, Galway Photos by Vincent Hughes On a freezing Friday night in January when the pelting rain hurts your face there are few things that will warm your body and toast your soul more than hearing a collection of masterfully constructed folk songs that manage to maintain an emotional, poetic rawness despite the very professional polish.  Tonight’s sold out show by in Galway’s…

  • Deep Down South: Birthday Record Store Day, Rumblings on Barrack St and YES to Equality

    April 12, 2015 - By 

    Hooray for Record Store Day! The one day of the year specifically designed for doing what we all love to do, crate-diving and generally enjoying our local oases of good taste. In Cork City, that only means one thing for so many of us, and that’s a visit to long-standing institution PLUGD Records. This weekend, as well as Record Store Day, there’ll be birthday celebrations ahoy for the greatest record shop in the world as it celebrates four years in its present home, the Triskel Arts Centre, operating upstairs in the city’s artistic flagship after being temporarily homeless, and even…

  • Luke Abbott, Somerville, Subplots @ Pepper Canister Church, Dublin

    November 20, 2014 - By 

    Arriving at the Pepper Canister church on Dublin’s Mount Street last Saturday evening one was met with seemingly incongruous signage screaming Hidden Agenda. Truly esoteric, casual bystanders might have suspected a hijacking, an unsubtle protest at the church in modern Ireland. The fact of the matter was something less overtly political, yet just as exciting. The Dublin venture whose name adorned these signs was putting on a thrilling concert in this venue, an evening of music grounded in folk that gazed ever skyward.Stepping inside, the mood was one of quiet wonder, as smoke softly drifted through air and rich, thick…