Tieranniesaur in Whelan’s, Dublin on Friday 10th of May 2103 There is an inherent difficulty in having a gig to launch a new album. You want to showcase the new album by playing songs from it, but don’t want to alienate the audience by playing a set full of songs that they won’t have heard before. There is a fine [...]

British Sea Power at Academy 2, Dublin on Tuesday 7th May 2013 ‘The Decline of British Sea Power’, British Sea Power’s debut album, is ten years old next month. It’s a cruel irony that it was a peak that the band would never reach again. ‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ from 2008, though not quite reaching the same levels, was [...]

Balthazar come to release their second album with a sense of expectation surrounding them. Granted, ‘Applause’, the Belgians debut released in 2010, was not a massive hit in this part of the world, it was nevertheless a fine offering with lead singer Maarten Devoldere and co offering up upbeat, funky indie-pop. Opening with The Oldest of Sisters, ‘Rats’ is instantly [...]

The first thing to mention when discussing The Doppler Shift is that they sound like Muse. And it’s not that it’s a passing resemblance either. This is no ‘Oasis sound like The Beatles’ either; this is up Chemical Brother’s Let Forever Be sounds like The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows. They sound irrevocably, inescapably, undeniable similar. Cast half an ear to [...]

 The Vaccines at the Olympia, Dublin on Monday 8th of April 2013 The Vaccines are an intriguing band to contemplate. While filling out the Olympia on a Monday just over two years after your first album is no mean feat (especially considering they played the Trinity Ball on Friday and Kilkenny on Saturday), it seems that they have hardly evolved [...]

When Hilary Woods left JJ72 in 2003 you could be forgiven for thinking it was a bad move. It was, after all, a band very much fronted by Mark Greaney who acted as vocalist, lead guitarist and chief songwriter. It’s not as though many bassists from such bands go on to achieve success after leaving (and don’t go pointing out [...]

It’s hard to know when Biffy Clyro became so popular. While logic would suggest that it happened somewhere between ‘Puzzle’ and ‘Only Revolutions’, it’s safe to say that they have a large and committed fan base now. Fan boys – and boys is the operative term as the evening is as male dominated as the Catholic Church  – were in [...]

Poliça in Whelan’s, Dublin on Saturday 23rd of March 2012 There has been an explosion in electronic indie in the past few years. Since The xx – the first of the genre to achieve critical and commercial – burst onto the scene in 2009 there have been many to follow. The likes of Grimes and Purity Ring, while having more [...]

The Simpsons started off as a punky upstart of a television show (don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with this). It was a spiky brat that shot from the hip commissioned a nascent television network with nothing to lose. Over time things changed. The network, Fox, grew to the mainstream and The Simpsons was its flagship. The show changed as a [...]

 Ne-Yo at the O2, Dublin on Monday, 11th of March 2013 It’s a cold March day in Dublin when Ne-Yo takes the O2 stage. Snow has sprinkled the streets and this may have an effect on the attendance. Already in a configuration for a smaller attendance, the seats still only seem to be half full. It’s an aspect that the [...]