Review of Cloud Control at The Academy 2 – April 7th 2011
Review by Kevin Donnellan
Snaps by Alessio Michelini
This year Cloud Control won the Australian Music Prize. Three Door Cinema Club won the Choice Music Prize. Australia has a population of 22,580,551. The island of Ireland has a population of 6,197,100. Therefore, all being fair in love and alternative music award ceremonies, Cloud Control are 3.64 times as good as Two Door Cinema Club.
Or if you believe that music comes from the land itself we could compare land mass. Australia has a land mass of 7,617,930 square kilometres. Ireland 84,421 kilometres squared. Which would mean that Cloud Control are arguably 90.24 times as good as Two Door Cinema Club. Can you imagine that? Take a popular song by the County Down trio, like ‘I Can Talk’ and make it over ninety times better. Astonishing.
So when Cloud Control rocked up in the Academy 2 last Thursday expectations were understandably high. Well they would be if you approached music like some weird stat-obsessed trainspotter… Like I did…just there…in the opening paragraphs.
For the rest of the crowd the promise of a few tracks online means this is slightly safe ‘lucky dip’ gig. Low expectations, but hoping to get in on the ground floor (or the Academy basement) with an emerging band.
And they didn’t disappoint. The four piece came out with a bang. Loud, exciting noise from the off. Treading the line carefully between the pure noise of a Spaceman3 or My Bloody Valentine and the poppier sounds of The Klaxons or the Dodos. All good bands to use as reference points, all acts that Cloud Control can realistically aspire to emulate.
The poppier (if you could call them that) elements were driven by Alister Wright on vocals and lead guitar. His head always in danger of colliding with the low Academy2 ceiling. The noise coming from Heidi Lenffer on keyboard and vocals; all long hair covering her face and whole-hearted smashing of the keys. For a relatively paltry crowd this was a treat. The band played like we were hanging from the rafters. Never afraid to go off script. Never acknowledging that a half-full Dublin basement maybe isn’t the best place in the world to play.
‘Gold Canary’ and ‘Meditation Song’ were the highlight of a set that was full of them. They should be back soon. You’d hope by then many more people will have discovered their promise. They may not be ninety times as good as TDCC but they’re deserving winners of any accolades they get their hands on.
