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Tag: concert

  • Soak // Live at Parlour Skate Shop, Shoreditch, London #‎SOAKSK9SHOW‬

    Soak // Live at Parlour Skate Shop, Shoreditch, London #‎SOAKSK9SHOW‬

    SOAKParlourSkateShop

    Soak: Live at Parlour Skate Shop, Shoreditch, London, February 17th 2015

    In a week when Bridie Monds-Watson announced the June release of her debut album on Rough Trade records, ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’, the Derry native was spending her time combining her loves of skateboarding and music for some #‎SOAKSK9SHOW‬S, yup, gigs in skate parks and shops.

    I caught her set in Parlour Skate Shop in Shoreditch. With an early door time, myself and my bud headed to the venue and slipped through the front part of the shop, with its rows of skate tops and shirts into a room where Bridie was playing DJ.

    It wasn’t long before the room filled up and everyone manoeuvred themselves into prime viewing location. I think it’s about eight months since I last saw SOAK perform and since then, she has grown into a confident performer.

    SOAK opens with ‘Explosions’ and throughout her set, she eases from acoustic guitar to electric and back. By the second track of the evening, everyone is sitting on the floor, even though, by the time the set is over, we’re all stiff and have pins and needles in our legs, it makes for a far more intimate setting, more like a living room set. Shuvels and Sea Creatures are given an airing and if you’ve seen Soak before, you’ll recognise these songs.

    Bridie has a fantastic way with her lyrics and when she tells that ‘Blud’ is about a time she heard her parents fighting, it kicks in what a talented an mysterious wordsmith she is. There’s no doubt that the tracks she played tonight will all appear on ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’ and she ends the evening with the song that will be the last track on the album, ‘Oh Brother’, which she tells us has been shortened on the tour to ‘Oh Bro’.

    SOAK is such a talent, with the album release coming up and gigs in New York and Australia announced and selling quickly, this is probably the last time we will see her in a venue of this size. Amazing talent, the world is her oyster.

  • Diary // Wallis Bird at The Garage, London

    Diary // Wallis Bird at The Garage, London

    Wallis Bird at The Garage, Highbury, London, May 11 2014

    So last Sunday night, I headed along to catch Wallis Bird at The Garage in London. The night was opened by Rachel Ries who recently released her own album ‘Ghost of a Gardener’. Ries, who played electric guitar, was for the most part accompanied on keys by a gentleman with an Irish accent, but whose name escaped me. There was a little of her playing keys. but the fact that she played electric guitar seemed to take her out of the little female piano playing singer songwriter cage.

    Architect is Wallis Bird’s fourth album and her most successful. This tour to support the album has seen more people than before come to see Wallis live. And it’s not surprising to see why. On record, Architect, is a fantastically accomplished piece of work, live, her enthusiasm for her music shines through, as does her honesty and authenticity. Bird and her band put on a great show, musicianship is tight and second to none but there’s also room for spontaneity. She plays tracks from her current album along with that of her older catalogue and it’s easy to see that belongs on stage.

    Bird’s humour shines through on stage, yes she has some terrible jokes. Even though. when she speaks about more serious between songs, such as gender equality Bird lovingly refers to Jesus Sausage. (This is the night after Conchita Wurst’s win at Eurovision).

    But the music speaks loudest of all and when you hear tracks like Communion, To My Bones, Hardly Hardly, Blossoms in the Street, I Can Be Your Man and Encore, it’s easy to see that Wallis Bird is one of the best artists of our generation. Great songs, great band, great stage presence, if you haven’t seen her live, you are doing yourself and injustice.

  • Public Service Broadcasting at The Button Factory: Review

    Public Service Broadcasting at The Button Factory: Review

    PublicServiceBroadcastingThis originally was published on Goldenplec.com

    Public Service Broadcasting at The Button Factory May 31st 2013

    Public Service Broadcasting have travelled the length and breadth of both the UK and Ireland on this tour, before arriving for a show in The Button Factory in Dublin, in support of their debut album, ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’. Borrowing the album’s title from the BBC’s charter, the band have used samples from archive information films and fused it with their musical ethos to forge something special, which would be a feat to recreate live.

    Entering the venue, The Violet Roadkills had taken the stage. Playing tracks from their new album, ‘Led Kindly Light’, the krautrock fourpiece were tight with each instrument balanced beautifully in the soundscape. Just a pity there weren’t more people there to hear them.

    Bank Holiday weekends in the capital can be strange affairs as people escape to the country. It was not until moments before Public Service Broadcasting were due to take the stage that the venue actually filled up. As the stage crew readied for the event, it became apparent that this wasn’t a gig, it was a proper audio visual show. Either side of the stage, the shells of old televisions were stacked four high, for use with projectors. Hanging at the back of the stage was a main screen and to the left towards the back of the stage was another huge ‘TV’ screen.

    For the live shows PSB have three people on stage, Wigglesworth on drums, sitting to the left, Mr. B on visuals and J. Willgoose, Esq. ‘on everything else’. There are no vocal microphones set up for interaction with the audience, instead comunication is made through a series of sampled phrases in a ‘proper English’ accent. The trio themselves beautifully add to this co-ordination as they are clad in corduroy, tweed jackets, dickie bows, shirts and ties.

    The band start the night off as they mean to continue. The stage comes alive. For ‘London Can Take It’, the venue lights mimic search lights and vintage war footage is played on the main screen at the back of the stage, with other imagery lighting with stacked television sets either side. Musically, it’s really interesting. Alongside samples and triggered noises, J. Willgoose, Esq. plays banjo. Not something you’d really expect to see in this environment. This really is a feast for the senses.

    As they progress through their set, J. Willgoose, Esq. moves between instruments, to guitar sampling riffs, and thermin on ‘Dig for Victory’, he’s never still. During ‘The Now Generation’, to make the visuals a little different on the tracks, Mr B, leaves his spot at the back of the stage and wanders the stage with a roving camera, from which we can see his point of view on the stage. At points during this track, there’s a subtle synth sound not unlike Paul Hardcastle’s 19, this track rocks a little harder though. The rock is continued with a ‘New Dimensions in Sound’, starting off quiet and thoughtful, with sampled string plucks and bells before add a good dash of distorted guitar.

    At the end of eack track J. Willgoose, Esq. plays a polite ‘Thank You’ sample before adding ‘Dublin’. A heckler shouts ‘Sligo Rovers will win the league’ towards the stage, to which J. Willgoose, Esq. retorts with a ‘Yes we’ve all had a few’ sample, which makes the entire audience laugh. The lack of direct verbal communication from the band isn’t an issue, Willgoose acknowledges the well populated venue. The audience are enjoying the audio visual spectactle, though it does take a little while for them to dance. There are calls from the floor for ‘Spitfire’ and ‘Everest’.

    Listening to ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’, it’s easy to picture what the visuals may be for the sampled material. The live show fuses the the music and the visuals so tightly together, it may be hard to return to listening to the audio only.

    ‘Spitfire’, the track that brought PSB to many people’s attention is a definite fan favourite, with cheers bellowing from the crowd from the first roar of the sampled plane. This gets everyone dancing as the visuals explode across the screen. The splash of colour around the screens onstage beautifully portrays ‘ROYGBIV’, each television set on either side of the stage, features the PSB satellite logo on a different colour background. The trio leave the stage to rapturous applause but the audience are going no where. They want to hear/see ‘Everest’. On the week of the sixtieth anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent to ‘the roof of the world’ there really is no other way to finish off the show.

    Public Service Broadcasting have achieved what they wanted to with ‘Inform – Educate – Entertain’, they have provided us with a look at the past which we probably wouldn’t have looked at twice. They’ve educated us with images of wartime rationing and encouraged self sufficiency and they’ve entertained us. This show is something very special, visually engaging, musically sonically gratifying, they’ve set a new high for audio visual shows.

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  • John Grant: Live at Vicar St, Dublin – Review

    John Grant: Live at Vicar St, Dublin – Review

    JohnGrant_bannerThis originally appeared on Goldenplec.com – John Grant at Vicar St. – May 3rd 2013

    The scene was set. Friday night, the first night of the Bank Holiday weekend, John Grant in Vicar St seemed like it could be the perfect start especially given the reviews his current album ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ has received.

    Liza Flume opens the night’s entertainment. Over the past while, Flume has received much praise and it’s easy to see why. The first song of her set ‘In Time’, has the Dublin based Aussie singer live looping guitar and vocals, adding to each layer as the song progresses. She cleverly harmonizes with her own sampled vocals before all samples are removed leaving Flume singing a cappella before the reaching the crescendo with the full force of her acoustic guitar.

    Flume’s voice has an endearing quality, pure but with a little bit of grit which make her lyrics and songs believable and honest. The audience are treated to tracks from Flume’s current EP ‘Full Steam Ahead’ but also get a cover of Robyn’s ‘With Every Heartbeat’, which is given the trademark Flume treatment of sampled layers to produce something special. The set is ends with ‘What We Call Love’, a catchy memorable song brought along by a finger click rhythm. Flume shows great potential as a performer and a songwriter and true talent in arranging her own material. Put her on your ‘must check out’ list.

    The opening bars of ‘You Don’t Have To’ fill the auditorium as John Grant comes to the stage, however when he goes to sing into the microphone, there’s no sound, after an impressive non panicked adjustment of cables by one of the band, all is right with the world. The bass synth sound on the track and sampled rhythms dominate many of the track Grant plays from his current album ‘Pale Green Ghosts’.

    As he finishes his first track he comments on how ‘lovely it is to be here’ but also how frustrating it is that he doesn’t get to see much of the city. Grant currently lives in Iceland and four of his five band members hail from the island, the fifth, his keyboard player, Chris comes from Coventry.

    The downbeat ‘Vietnam’ follows. The bearded Grant is dressed casually, jeans and a polo shirt and trainers with illuminious soles and laces, which glow under the stage lights. Throughout the show he dances and moves from microphone to the keyboards on the left of the stage to play during the instrumental breaks. Layers of electronic sounds and samples are laid on top of a traditional band set up of guitar, bass, keys and drums.

    Grant is a likeable character, he jokes that he’s going to an Alice Cooper cover and how he loves the aforementioned bass synth sound so much he would ‘put it on his cornflakes in the morning’. He also acknowledges his HIV status during the set and his inbetween song words alongside his soul baring lyrics easily bridge the gap between stage and audience, who obviously have been listening to ‘Pale Green Ghosts’, the title track gets a cheer from the opening notes as does hte highly danceable ‘Sensitive New Age Guy.’

    Sinead O’Connor appears on four tracks from Pale Green Ghosts so it’s not too much of a surprise when she appears onstage, the crowd still go into overdrive. O’Connor sing barefoot and wears a ‘GMF’ tshirt from Grant’s merch stand. ‘It Doesn’t Matter to Him’ follows ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ and O’Connor’s backing vocals are immaculate, reminding us that she is one of our isle’s gems.

    Grant and O’Connor seem very comfortable on stage together and she seemed to get a kick out of singing the ‘I am the greatest MotherF…’ O’Connor leaves the stage during ‘I hate this town’ only to be seen dancing at the side of the stage. Grant is quick to point out that the song is ‘not about this town’ and how his own song reminds him of Abba’s Chiquitita and a dance move he once saw Frida do on TV. Grant is dancing onstage and doing this weird ‘Frida clap’, the audience back him up well.
    But it’s the piano led ‘Glacier’ that gets the crowd to their feet.

    Grant gives a tender vocal performance, while Ms O’Connor goes from backing singer to taking charge on a verse. As the track builds towards, the petit O’Connor steps on Grants feet and the pair dance around the stage in a bear hug. The only way they can finish this set is with ‘Queen of Denmark’, two fantastic vocal performances, together one one stage, making a great song even better. An trio of songs provide the audience with an encore, ‘Where Dreams Go To Die’, ‘TC & Honeybear’ and ‘Caramel’ bring the evening to a close.

    As Grant leaves the stage, the rapturous applause continues until the house lights brighten the venue. An amazing night’s music and quite an extraordinary connection with the audience. One to remember.