Well, here we are again. It’s the start of October. It’s getting a bit nippy, a bit darker, but no matter. What better way to usher in the winter months than three days of music around the city courtesy of Hard Working Class Heroes fesitival? We’re sure you know the drill by now – a multitude of bands spread over various venues over three nights. And of course, don’t forget HWCH & The City, where starting at midday day on the festival’s opening day you can catch stripped down sets from many of the bands on the bill in shops, markets & cafes around town. You can get the full list of acts here, but in the meantime we’ve gathered up a few that we think you might like…
// Thursday \\
Paddy Hanna
Thursday – The Button Factory – 8.00pm
What To Expect: Recent #GoldenBeck performer and self-proclaimed “bumbling shut in from Dublin” released a lo-fi gem early in the year with ‘Leafy Stiletto’, a brief but accomplished collection of understated songs. Paddy has had tenure with Grand Pocket Orchestra, No Monster Club, Ginnels and Skelocrats in the past and most likely present – now’s your chance to hear his solo wonderings with a wee dram of whiskey and a few like-minded souls.
Set Highlight: We told you, being warmed by top shelf liqour and lo-fi songsmithery
What It Will Sound Like:
God Knows + mynameisjOhn
Thursday – The Button Factory – 10.0pm
What To Expect: So you’re looking for that one exciting ‘new sound’ – well look no further. Mixing quite possibly the best Irish album this year (‘Rusangano / Family’ – Listen here) with one of Ireland’s most exciting live sets…this is going to be a special show.
Set Highlight: Their track ‘S E R I O U S’
What It Will Sound Like:
Liza Flume (Plec Pick 2014)
Thursday – Meeting House Square – 10.15pm
What To Expect: What can be said about this wee Ozzy that we’ve not said before in these pages. Liza has been quiet over recent months, preparing and perfecting a full new set which she will showcase on a big stage in Dublin for the first time.
Set Highlight: This set’s highlight will most certainly be the new songs that have been given her recent overhaul.
What It Will Sound Like:
The Statics
Thursday – The Mercantile – 8.40pm
What To Expect: There’s more than a whiff of The La’s – and a certain other famous band from Liverpool – to The Statics’ jangly pop. This Dublin quartet unfailingly delivers a vocal harmony laden, high-energy, snappy set tightened up no end over the last couple of years’ gigging. The crowd who find themselves in front of The Statics will be anything but.
Set Highlight: When the drummer inevitably ramps the tempo up and the set kicks into higher gear
What It Will Sound Like:
Sisters
Thursday – The Button Factory – 9.20
What To Expect: Lots of grungey goodness; Sisters’ sound harks back to early 90s alternative rock with squealing guitars, chugging basslines and wicked drums. Hushed boy-girl vocals, and their habit of jumping from quiet lulls to explosive noise-fests make for quite the spectacle. The band’s ability to capture and embody a whimsical and nostalgic mood in their tunes is perhaps their strongest appeal, and that’s certainly helped by their catchy vocal hooks.
Set Highlight: The giddy swirl that emerges from the chorus of Clearhead is a thing of beauty, and will be left to bounce round your head for the rest of the day.
Leanne Harte
Thursday – Bad Bobs – 9.20pm
What to expect: Powerful heartfelt vocals, quirky lyrics, dark and lush melodies, Leanne Harte has everything a modern singer/songwriter needs in their locker to succeed. Her 2013 EP ‘Restless Sleepers’ was one of the most underappreciated Irish releases of the year.
Set Highlight: Repeated moments of piloerection as Harte bares her soul.
The Academic (Plec Pick 2014)
Thursday – Bad Bobs – 10.40pm
What to expect: A band we’ve been tracking for some time, The Academic have been playing all over Europe this summer and return to show the Dublin crowd what all the hypes been about. A band so young with a future so bright.
Set Highlight: See below.
// Friday \\
I Have a Tribe (Plec Pick 2014)
Friday – The Button Factory – 10.00pm
What To Expect: Remember last year, all the buzz about the place was about “that” Hozier performance in The Button Factory? Well, our guess is that there’s going to be a similar buzz surrounding this man. IHAT recently headlined one of our #GoldenBeck nights and he utterly stunned the room. This is a performance you simply cannot miss.
Set Highlight: It’s a toss up between Yellow Raincoats (below) or Monsoon – it’s all so bloody good.
Death In The Sickroom
Friday – The Mercantile – 8.40pm
What To Expect: Unrequited love, Chiming, jangly guitars, literary references; Death in the Sickroom channel the influence of alternative ‘80s masters such as The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order.
Set Highlight: Single Tonight and their brave and their accomplished cover of LCD Soundsystem’s All My Friends.
Elastic Sleep
Friday – The Mercantile – 10.40pm
What To Expect: Guitars loaded with distortion and effects, but instead of being ramped up to abrasive levels, Elastic Sleep create a lusher landscape that sweeps you off your feet rather than delivering a full body blow. That’s not to say the band lack punch, Elastic Sleep have no problem between bridging the gap between hazy euphoria and a darker, more malicious sound. All in all, this guarantees an intense show that spans a wide arc of emotions and moods.
Set Highlight: the moment the hazy guitars close around your ears and falling asleep sounds wonderful, until a change in mood shocks you into full alertness.
Dott
Friday – Bad Bob’s – 11.20pm
What To Expect: We swooned over their debut EP ‘Button’, and when we caught them at last year’s HWCH, that set was a just a month before they released their debut album, ‘Swoon’. Galway’s Dott, as you may have guessed, have become synonymous in our quarters with swooning and being swooned. Bad Bob’s is the place to be if you like your music sunny, surfy, Spector-y and power poppy. Prepare to be swooned off your dancing feet.
Set Highlight: The gloom of Bad Bob’s being banished by light-emitting power pop
What It Will Sound Like:
Ghost Estates
Friday – Bad Bobs – 12.00pm
What to Expect: A wash of electro-shoegaze vibes underpinned by bouncy basslines which combine to give Ghost Estates sound a maudlin euphoria with singles such as October and Winters Day yielding just the right amount of bombast.
Set Highlight: You’ll have to go to find out.
// Saturday \\
Hags
Saturday – The Mercantile – 8.40pm
What To Expect: From the ashes of When Good Pets Go Bad have arisen Hags, a four-piece noise rock outfit from Cork. They’be been busy on the live front of late, and if their recent Whelan’s performance is anything to go by that boundary between audience and band may well be kicked into oblivion.
Set Highlight: Well, we do like that tune down yonder…
What It Will Sound Like:
The Vincent(s)
Saturday – The Mercantile – 10.00pm
What To Expect: It’s been a busy year for the Cork band with an extensive touring schedule honing their set, and the recently released remix of their Song For The Sea by The Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor has been impressing us here in the Goldenplec office. The Vincent(s) specialise in visceral, grunge-y psych with the distinctive dark tones of their frontman hammering home the effect. A blood-spattered bass generally isn’t an unusual sight to see come the set’s end, so intense is the band’s slaying of their tracks.
Set Highlight: Guitar squall battling with vocal howls aplenty
What It Will Sound Like:
The Boxing Plot
Saturday – Bad Bob’s – 10.00pm
What To Expect: Post-punk boldness at its best; piercing solos, basslines that clamber over the guitars like a wild animal, and intricate drumming all capped off with the brooding, sincere vocals. The band have pieced themselves back together for this show, and with members coming home from as far away as Scotland, the band must be confident of their ability to put on a performance to remember to go to such efforts.
Set Highlight: allowing yourself to be carried along by the sweeping, rumbling glory of Geist.
Princess
Saturday – The Mercantile – 10.40pm
What To Expect: A slightly unhinged stage presence and a LOT of distortion. The group have a totally carefree attitude onstage, as evidenced by the fact that the band are bold enough to rarely play the contents of their debut EP, and by their obvious amusement whenever they put heavy reverb on their vocals. The songs themselves push the limits of what sounds guitars are capable of making, while always retaining at least a hint of melody.
Set Highlight: The glorious feeling that your mind may be melting from the sheer volume of heavy distortion emerging from the band’s instruments.
Meltybrains?
Saturday – The Workmans Club – 10.40pm
What To Expect: The Melty’ masks have been clocking up some serious mileage this summer with standout performances all over the country. It was at EP on the Body and Soul mainstage that the Melty’ bandwagon turned from ‘ones for the future’ to ‘ones for right now’ – a special turning point in the bands progression perhaps? This will be their last gig in Dublin for quite some time as the guys lock themselves away to do some writing. Do not miss this – a perfect band to showcase and end this HWCH festival.
Set Highlight: As soon as those Melty’ masks get handed/thrown out – that or when Brian loses his shit for the first time.