Review by Craig McDonnell
Photos by Kieran Frost
It almost seems like an annual thing now. Another new album from the Wicklow-born trio and another headline date in The Academy. Year after year, they seem to build on an ever-increasing fanbase as more and more people get into post-rock music.
Support on the night came from fellow instrumental post-rockers in the shape of Caspian. Hailing from Massachusetts, Caspian are supporting God is an Astronaut on their 11 date tour of UK and Ireland. It was instantly obvious why they were chosen to support. This five-piece had the amazing ability to teleport a song from a melodically beautiful dimension into one of manic noise in milliseconds. Before their last song, ‘frontman’ (if there is such a thing in a band without vocals) Philip Jamieson thanked God is an Astronaut for letting them be support on tour. That in itself, along with the countless European dates away from Ireland they have played this year, is a sign of just how far they have come in the last few years.
After a fairly swift changeover and the unfurling of a ‘God is an Astronaut’ banner over the balcony behind the stage, it was time for the headline act. Starting off with the title-track off their new album ‘Age of the Fifth Sun’, something was recognisably missing on stage. On the numerous times I have seen this band play live, they have played in time to visuals projected onto a screen behind them. This time, however, only 4 standalone lights were accompanying them on stage. This is either a sign that they have decided the visuals were too much of a gimmick or else the band have built up enough confidence in the last year to let the music do the talking.
And the music certainly talked. Considering this was a tour marking the release of a new album, they played relatively few songs from it. Instead they opted to play the majority of their second album ‘All is Violent, All is Bright’ including crowd favourites ‘Suicide by Star’ , ‘Fire Flies and Empty Skies’ and ‘Fragile’. They also played ‘From Dust to the Beyond’ off their first album as well as a handful from their self titled album released last year.
At the end, Torsten Kinsella informed the crowd that they will be taking a break from touring in 2011 to record more music and that they will be back again in 2012. It remains to be seen just how popular they will be in 2 years time. With post-rock bands becoming more and more popular, who’s to say a new era of bands without vocalists won’t have taken over the music world by then?
