Life goes on after Crazy Ol’ Tom
(1) Our good friend Crazy Ol’ Tom may have left town with a very large cheque in his back-pocket, but the chatter is still going on. I reckon it will still be going on until he comes back next year for a couple of nights at the 02. Ooops, did I just say that? Or did I just make it up? Your call, sports fans. (*)
(2) Anyway, life rumbles on. Over the weekend, one festival fell apart and was forced to cancel. That would be Dysart, the music and arts bash in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. You can read all about it here as the promoters first blamed the weather and then admitted they hadn’t sold enough tickets. The festival website, however, has still not been updated with the info, though they have stopped selling tickets for the weekend (tickets were still on sale on Saturday afternoon). Big thanks to Ken at Kilkennymusic for all the updates on this over the weekend.
UPDATE The latest word from Kilkenny Music is that an extremely down-sized version of this festival will take place in a Kilkenny city-centre venue with a reduced line-up and reduced ticket prices. Meanwhile, there is still absolutely NO update on the festival website about this. We’ve already had a few comments and emails from people who purchased tickets for this festival and who are wondering what is going on. Maybe the organisers might like to comment on why they haven’t bothered to inform their paying punters what is happening?
(3) More festival trouble and strife. We got a few reports over the weekend about tent trouble (as in tents blowing away) at Mantua. We await an update on this - and the music at the fest - with interest.
(4) No such problems at the fabulous Farmleigh Affair. We had a lovely afternoon in Lord Iveagh’s back-garden, dodging marauding toddlers, babies in buggies and wasps (maybe that should be WASPs?) attacking make-shift picnics. On the music tip, we enjoyed Marseilles’s Lo Cor De La Plana (six dudes doing acapello dance tunes with stoming feet, clapping hands and rudimentary drums banging out a buckwild rhythm) and Grupo Fantasma (lads from Austin, Texas who brought the house down with barnstorming Latin boogaloo and salsa). The Farmleigh Affair - it could be our very own Camp Bestival, you know. Éimear McKeith’s review of Sunday’s performances is here.
(5) The best live show we’ve seen in aeons? That would be Lisa Hannigan at the Spirit Store in Dundalk last Thursday night. Singing songs from her forthcoming “Sea Sew” album (due out on September 12), she was all sparkle and star quality. Her new songs are charming monsters and belters, each one adorned with very simple but very striking musical bows and ribbons. Her band - four dapper be-suited chaps - are perfectly in tune with where Hannigan wants those songs to go. Make no mistake about it, she’s the boss. She’s playing a couple of more dates this month before the Electric Picnic so check them out. By this time next year, she’ll probably be supernova and well on her way to selling a million copies of that album. Yep, that show really was something else altogether (see Tony’s review for more raving).
(6) New additions to the gig-roll. The excellent Blitzen Trapper play Whelan’s in Dublin on October 2 with support from Absentee. We missed the Trapper when they were here earlier in the year so we shall make amends this time around.
(7) Thanks to Analogue for the heads-up that the magnificent Our Brother The Native (we really heart their “Make Amends For We Are Merely Vessels” album) are coming. They play Belfast’s Limelight on September 27, Dublin’s Crawdaddy on September 28 and Galway’s Roisin Dubh on September 29.
(8) We’re hearing word of a return to Ireland before the end of the year for No Age and Times New Viking. And expect to hear about Irish dates for Wolf Parade in the next couple of days too. Stay tuned.
(9) Best interview of the weekend? That would be Rachel English talking to promoter Peter Aiken on Saturday on RTE Radio One (the audio of the interview can be found here - scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Saturday” show icon on the right-hand side of the page). A well-researched interview with good, solid questions, especially that one about why Live Nation are not seeking to take over Aiken Promotions.
(10) The soundtrack for the weekend? That would be new albums from Abe Vigoda (“Skeleton” is a wow from start to finish), David Holmes (”The Holy Pictures” turns out to be quite an atmospheric thriller), Minotaur Shock (the best “Amateur Dramatics” in town), Oxford Collapse (“Bits” shows that the Sub Pop revival continues) and Lackthereof (smashing solo album from Danny from Menomena).
* Just in case you’re wondering, I made this up. Sure, it would never happen. Or would it?
11:14 am
i will pass over your tom waits tease to register my excitement at a times new viking return…
Comment by Ally