There’s been a lot of media chatter the last few days about the series of drive-in concerts being planned featuring the likes of Ash, Dizzee Rascal, Gary Numan, with attendant questions on how they would work, how safety would be ensured and how enjoyable the experience would be. Delighted to have had the opportunity today to experience a drive-in gig first hand, the first in the UK, I believe.
On the 10th of March I went to my last live-in-person-concert (in England). On the 11th I got back to Ireland and on the 12th the lockdown started here – partial initially, strict soon after. “You must miss concerts”, people say. I probably would eventually, but for now, I honestly don't. Due to a mild, manageable (confirmed) dose of the corona virus I have had more free time at home than I have had since secondary school, with lots of live music streaming into my living room. I get to pick and choose, donate if I find it is worth it, and nobody bothers me by talking through the music. It's ideal.
A lot has already been written about the changes concerning Sleater-Kinney post the launch of their most recent album 'The Center Won't Hold'. It's sufficient to say that the two founding members, principle songwriters and vocalists Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein are still in the band, and that bands which are afraid to evolve and embrace change often stagnate and finish which is clearly something Sleater-Kinney were not prepared to do.
Compared with other parts of the country the wrath of Storm Ciara largely bypassed Coventry enabling the audience to get to tonight's venue without a storm-related incident, “Thanks for battling your way through the storm... I don't think its been so bad this way..we had a lovely trip down from Glasgow....though tomorrow morning we might find our van half way up a tree....” says Anna Meredith referring to the prevalent weather tonight.
An experimental event, as part of 'Independent Venues Week' curated by Sam Duckworth (aka Get Cape Wear Cape Fly) Effectively a two day mini-festival under the guise of a fake wedding, ie: Saturday “come in wedding gear”, ready for the party with DJs til 1.00 a.m.; Sunday – “the morning after” all the guests invited for a chill-out day. Venue was The Half Moon, Putney - a long standing supporter of live music, and as promised, the weekend delivered an interesting range of acts.
Music Network is an Arts Council funded organisation who, amongst other things, organise tours of live music throughout Ireland. These tours can involve either traditional, contemporary or classical musicians and most significantly the network bring these shows to small theatres all around the country. Sometimes they bring over acts who have a show ready to go (De Temps Antan and Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi are recent examples), but at other times they put a number of musicians together and ask them to develop a programme.
On the eve of the winter solstice Kíla brought their Féile Kíla to the National Stadium on the South Circular Road (féile = festival). For those unfamiliar with the band: Kíla are an eight piece band that Songlines Magazine described as folk fusion - a more apt description than the usual trad world hybrid, though they are that as well. Last year Kíla celebrated 30 years as a band and to mark the occasion they put on their first Féile Kíla. It was a resounding success, with none other than president Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina in attendance.
“Frank Turner will be performing his most original project to date”, proclaimed the venue program. That venue was the Birmingham Symphony Hall, a spectacular place for a concert. 'No Man's Land' was released in the summer. Frank's eighth album to date is a concept album, celebrating remarkable women who are not as famous as they ought to be. The album was accompanied by a podcast series with an episode for each song, delving further into the stories of the female protagonists.
The Cornucopia tour is a theatrical companion to Bjork's Utopia album what an abundance of amazing things were on display tonight. The 2 hours at Glasgow's Hydro were such a visual and audio spectacular that it's difficult to adequately describe to do it justice.
Headbanging trad on speed. That was how I described Talisk’s late night show at the main stage at Cambridge Folk Festival this summer. When the opportunity arose to go and see the trad trio at their own headline gig I jumped at the chance, and so it was that I found myself in Edinburgh’s historic centre on a very dark and wet November evening.
It’s a cold, dark and wet November evening in Cambridge and Kenny Wayne Shepherd is in Town. Wow, the Louisiana guitarist is in our town and an almost sold out crowd haul themselves away from their cosy living rooms for a night of smokin’ hot electric blues.
To say that Lankum’s concert on their album release day was highly anticipated would be an understatement. The band had tweeted photos of them working on ‘The Livelong Day’ in the studio (Meadow Studio, Delgany, Co.Wicklow) earlier in the year. They posted a fascinating playlist on Spotify, compiled by their producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy, of tracks that inspired the making of the album . In interviews the band had been saying that they had finally made the album that they had been trying to make for a long time.