One Saturday night in Dublin city
Jim Carroll
Who said there was a recession in live music? On Saturday night in the capital, it seemed from text messages and tweets as if every venue was bringing its A game in terms of bookings and audiences responded at the door. You had Andy Irvine & Paul Brady doing it for the folkies in Vicar Street, Wiz Khalifa at large in the Olympia, Maverick Sabre rocking the Village, Ane Brun keeping it sweet in Whelan’s, Twin Sister wowing the indiesomethings in the Grand Social, a rake of pop acts giving it up for charity at Childline in the O2 and black metal lads Gorgogoth at the Button Factory. That’s a fierce rake of gigs for one night in a city at a time when money is too tight to mention. If Saturday night wasn’t enough to be going on with, you had St Vincent at the Button Factory, The Naked & Famous at the Olympia and the Fountains of Wayne at the Academy last night. And the assistant business editor of The Irish Times can’t be the only old goth bleating on about the Sisters Of Mercy at the Olympia on Friday night.
That’s an impressive list of acts for any weekend of the year. Hell, you’d probably buy a ticket for a festival if you’d all of them on the same bill (especially if there was a chance of a duet between Gorgogoth and Westlife). There are times when promoters get it bang on. It didn’t seem as if any of the acts had been put in a venue which was too big for them and clangers were not dropped.
I had plans for some binge-gigging on Saturday night but, an hour into the first show on my list, I just couldn’t drag myself away because the Robert Glasper Experiement at large in the Workman’s Club was quite an occasion. This was two hours deep inside the groove, a wonderful excursion into those space-age lines where jazz vibrations and post-Dilla hip-hop intersect and you’re transported away to another dimension. This ain’t your Daddy’s jazz, bud, this is something else entirely. It swung, it swayed, it went left, it went right and then it roared through the roof. By the time the band took “Smells Like Teen Spirit” apart, gave it a thorough rebooting and re-arranged it again, the audience was well and truly hooked.
The three musicians onstage have the kind of form you know makes for a feast. Glasper was last in Dublin 2 playing with Q-Tip, but he’s also worked with Mos Def, Kanye West J Dilla, Erykah Badu, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Common and other hip-hop and r’n'b bold print names as well as helming a bunch of albums in his own right. You’ll find bassist Derrick Hodge on a bunch of records from some of the above as well as jazz luminaries like Clark Terry and Terence Blanchard plus a bunch film scores as musician and composer. Chris Dave is usually on drums, but it was Mark Colenburg this time around, a St Louis drummer with another heady pedigree. No sign of saxaphonist Casey Benjamin on this occasion.
Glasper and co are at an interesting juncture in their trip. A new album “Black Radio” comes out in early 2012 and it’s a whopper, with Badu, Bilal, Mos Def, Meshell Ndegeocello, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway and others on the microphone. It’s an all-star jam where the tracks just hit their stride with no fuss or drama and pull you into their stream. It’s also an album which will be interesting to tour because you’re just not going to get those vocalists together on the same stage for an entire run of dates.
As things stand, Glasper will be due an upgrade next time out when he hits Dublin because there will be considerable positive post-match word-of-mouth about this show. An interesting hip turnout too, with considerably more non-jazzers than purists in the room. Chalk this down to Glasper’s considerable hip-hop cred, but also down to the more promiscuous musical tastes of the music massive in ’11.
Promoters may scratch their heads at how they get crowds these days. The traditional methods don’t quite work as well as they used to do so how do you flip the script and still fill the hall without losing your cash? Some will go gung-ho down the social media road and annoy everyone they come across. Others will simply take out more ads and wonder why these don’t work.
The answer is to choose their act wisely because they’re the ones who cross all the tracks and do all the hard work to begin with. This year, we’ve seen packed rooms gather to see acts like Baths, Gold Panda and Star Slinger, acts where the buzz has happened largely with imported rather than domestic media because potential audiences don’t rely exclusively on homegrown media for pointers any more. Just how much ink and coverage has Glasper received from Irish sources, for instance? The trick is to know when to make a punt on an act who is getting all that traction and to put ‘em on in a venue where the costs and the door-take make sense. Of course, it all changes when it comes to scaling up to bigger venues (and you’re on your own there, pal), but it’s worth remembering that there is enough adverturous, sussed gig-goers out there to make choice punts worth a go.
I was at The Sisters Of Mercy myself on Friday night. Sold out and packed to the rafters . So much dry ice it was like a scene of out John Carpenters’s ” The Fog ” ! Good show though .
really wanted to head up to scuba in the twisted pepper on friday but couldnt face a 2 hour journey after work… good to hear there’s so much variety in dublin though, will be checkin glasper out. looking forward to the field and walls this friday in the roisin dubh- i feel the venue will be a perfect place to see them (no more mentions of floating points and joy orbison please jim)
Brun & Vincent were my choices, gutted I missed Glasper & ‘Fountains. Both shows were rammed, both acts delivered. People are only spending at the weekends these days, good to see venues have woken up & started catering to this.
(deletia) – jeez, thanks for reminding me. That’s OTR Presents The Field and Walls at the Twisted Pepper next Saturday early (tickets going damn fast). Followed by POGO’s third birthday with Joy Orbison, Floating Points and many more. If you buy your ticket for The Field and Walls, you can hang around for POGO. Bargain! Full details at http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/event/bodytonicmusiccom-present-field-live-walls-live/
@ 2
For a minute there i thought you were saying The Walls were supporting The Field in Roisins !! lol
Likewise..was at the Sisters on Friday night…couple of people moaning afterwards about the show being crap but I thought it was great..they did exactly waht was on the tin and did it very well. And the audience all seemed to love it…much more than I remeber goths loving anything back in the 80′s
Didnt think they’d sell out the Olympia but they did…
Little bit off topic but i put together a little video of my photos of my Icelandic trip last month…..it may whet the appetite for anyone thinking of heading up there!
( I swear i’m not getting paid by the Icelandic Tourist Board ! lol )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1z_d3sJrZo
Next weekend is looking good also, John Maus , Anna Calvi and Cults all playing decent venues.
Stephen – cough – and The Field as well
Think I picked the wrong gig this weekend as the Sisters was appalling. Eldrich can’t sing a note, and you couldn’t see the band for the entire concert due to the dry ice machine. No attempt to engage with the audience on any level, and I had an overwhlming urge to smack the guitar player every time he played a hair-metal solo. Never again. My own fault to an extent-I have to get better at leaving poor gigs early, but there is always that expectation that they will improve.
Had to go straight to the Workman’s club afterwards to get purged.
There is a part of me that is concerned that a few OTR readers were at the Olympia on Friday night. Just a part, mind.
@ 11 JIm
well the fact that my original username was Scarecrows of the Nephilim would have given you some idea towards my Goth leanings !
Yep lots of choice last Sat/Sun- was at the same as Martin (@3) and great nights- had my doubts about Ane Brun in Whelans but worked well in the end. Lots of acts on this coming Saturday too- on child minding duties though and none are all ages…not that my wallet could stretch for paying for three no matter how much my sons would like to see Battles live.
The promoters do seem to be on the ball- although surprised to still come across some under the radar or hardly mentioned. Can’t even seem to find out who is promoting William Fitzsimmons and if I wasn’t perusing venues then I would have missed that he was in Crawdaddy tonight- big enough over the pond I think but not a mention in any of the media/pr places that I would normally go to here. Did notice that POD are on finally on Twitter though http://www.twitter.com/PODLIVEGIGS
Another that doesn’t seem to be getting much mention is William Elliot Whitmore on Sat in the Sugar Club- Harmonic/Aiken putting it on and definitely worth a go- although one of those competing with your night Jim;-)
Tim – that’s an interesting point about the gigs which are still under the radar. In some cases – not all, though – some of the shows were are under the radar will still pull in a crowd because the promoter knows the audience and knows exactly how to get them and doesn’t need to go beyond that core consituency. A recent example of this was Macklemore at the Twisted Pepper – sold out and he did a second show and no-one beyond the hip-hop faithful knew about it. Nothing new about this – I used to work with a promoter years ago who did a lot of black metal and death metal gigs and he could sell 600 tickets for these shows on the back of a tiny, handmade poster put up in Sound Cellar. The problem for some promoters is when they need to go beyond the hardcore – or when they can’t get to the hardcore fans in Ireland. That’s when they have to scratch their heads and work it out.
@12 scarecrows: where did the Stipe come from?
@ 10 – You’ve obviously never seen the Sisters before then because thats their whole schtik…Eldritch’s voice was always questionable….they always envoloped the place in dry ice…and very rarely interacted with the crowd….that’s what goth is all about isn’t it ? Aloof and moody…..It wasn’t Def Leppard (despite the hair guitar solos !) you were at !
I thought they were very good…and so did the majority of the audience judging by the reaction…but then I knew what to expect
Heh, it always takes gigs like the Sisters to get all the goths and reformed goths to come out of the woodwork. I saw similar things happen at The Cranes, Nouvelle Vague, Brendan Perry and Peter Murphy last year but no-one it seems expected the sell out gig. Hopefully it will encourage promoters to get in like minded bands to play Ireland. Would have gone myself, but I expected to be needed in the office to handle Tax Deadlines. My friends said it was a good gig though.
Hell, it even got everyone talking here On The Record. And people claim “no-one likes goth music so we don’t cover it”. Maybe it’s me been bitter, but I’m not the only one who’s seen a lack of coverage of goth bands in the music media
@16 Cheers for the heads up Keith. I had never seen them before and was expecting something very different. Thought the crowd were very disengaged until the encore. Midway through the set, half the crwd around me were in the bar and the other half were chatting amoungst themselves. Something did strike me though-do Irish people have very low expectations at gigs? Once they have a few pints beforehand and a vaguely familiar set, they are happy to put up with poor performances. And I’m not just talking about this gig.
St Vincent was great last night. She perhaps went on a tad too long about her video concepts, but with those looks, those songs and those cracking riffs, you can only stare and admire.
JMM – Maybe it’s me been bitter, but I’m not the only one who’s seen a lack of coverage of goth bands in the music media
True. Same also applies to death metal/black metal/heavy metal yet the gigs still sell out and bands still come here because these fanbases don’t rely on mainstream music media to get their news. It’s like I said in the main post – so many different ways to skin a cat now (not that I’m suggesting anyone goes off skinning cats)
@ 15 Mclovin
I was using ” Scarecrows of the Nephilim ” on my work computer & ” Stipe Pletikosa ” ( looked up at a poster of Tottenham Hotspur squad & he was the 3rd choice keeper so i used that name ) on my own laptop
then when i was posting under 2 different names , at work and when i went home, Jim clocked that it was the same person and referred to me as ” Scarecrows Of the Stipe ”
and thus i was named !
St Vincent were really great, I haven’t seen a room so completely captivated as when she sang The Party.
Her voice is incredible.
That’s a lovely story Scarecrow, but what does it say about you that you chose a third choice keeper? It reminds of that time in Scrubs, when JD is Robin to Turk’s Batman and then wonders why he is the side kick in his own fantasy.
@21, SotS (new handle for ya there), ok i get the Nephilim bit and now i get the Stipe bit (not the REM ref i had envisaged) but where in the name of bejebus does the Scarecrow bit come into it
BTW my username, Beergutz, is pretty much self-explanatory and not nearly as mysterious in origin, me likes me pints me does
“excursion into those space-age lines where jazz vibrations and post-Dilla hip-hop intersect ”
that sounds horrendous
@ 23 Enda
lol. Well Pletikosa plays for Croatia and if i had chosen the first choice Spurs keeper at the time , Heurelho Gomes, then i would be named after the CURRENT Spurs 3rd choice keeper !
@ 24 Beergutz
I dont know where i got the Scarecrows bit……just picked something Gothic-y i suppose !
I was at Sisters of Mercy……fair play to the audience, they out performed the band.
St. Vincent was excellent allright, but a 45 minute wait after the support act was pushing it, crowd were getting restless and to go on stage just before 10pm on a Sunday was GnR style
How can you do a piece on live music in Dublin on Saturday night and not even mention a sell out show by The Saw Doctors in The Academy?
It’s either poor research or selective journalism at best!
Scarecrows of Mercy – now there’s a goth name straight from the nunnery.
I have seen Robert Glasper and he is amazing but Andy Irvine and Paul Brady at Vicar Street were stupendous. They played for nearly two and a half hours clearly enjoying each others company and the wonderful atmosphere. It’s hard to believe they have been playing for nearly 50 years each in different bands and solo, yet they are playing better then ever. The concert was based around their 1976 album but included much other stuff as well. Versions of ‘Arthur McBride’, ‘West Coast of Clare’, ‘Lakes of Pontchatrain’, ‘the Blacksmith’ and more not only nailed the tunes but added to them. Other songs like Andy’s ‘O’Donohue’s’ is clearly now a classic. Let’s hope this has been (legally) recorded.
Badscooter – your comment proves two things which I point out above. (1) I don’t have any friends who went to that gig or who were there and didn’t text or tweet about the gig (see first paragraph above – I can only write about stuff I know is one – which leads me to…) (2) a band can sell out a show in the Academy without having to let everyone know they’re playing – just get the dedicated fanbase out and at ‘em (see last paragraph).
Was a little disappointed by St Vincent.
Thought the sound was incredibly good and I thought she was brilliant, but that backing band was too clinically cool and tight. Drummer didn’t look even close to breaking into a sweat, and it just lent an air of sterility to it. Maybe the huge reliance on the loops and click hampered the dynamics, dunno. A shame because I do think she herself was giving it loads, but the whole thing just never really….rocked
Jaysus, I only recognise a handful of those acts!Must be getting old!
@Stampy.. That description pretty much sums up Flying Lotus’ amazing last full-length, which is awesome not horrendous..
Jim.. I can’t help but comment.. Delighted to see such an extended mention of Glasper’s gig. Wasn’t there but would have loved to be. However..
I notice you refer to the fact that many gig-goers are looking to ‘imported’ over national media.. It is with much disdain that I point out the Ticket’s CD of the week is a re-issue of an old Who album. A few weeks ago I remember CD of the week being awarded to yet-another-Jesus-how-many-have-there-been reissue of stoner snoozefest Dark Side Of The Moon.. Are the majors paying money for CD of the week or wha? One way to kill off a media source is become culturally irrelevant.. No wonder we’re looking elsewhere when these are the types of records establishment are giving coverage to. I’m not for one second knocking your own personal dedication to breaking new stuff (your radio show speaks for itself) but, yknow, just had to say it!
Halandor – I hear you but that’s not my call so I’m going to ask Tony, who looks after the CD reviews, to answer that one. Sorry if that spells of buck-passing but I can’t answer for decisions like that.
I was/am in Stockholm got to see the horrors tear the place apart, they have upped their game so much, wonderful set mainly from the ‘skying’ album ,was talking to a couple of the band afterwards, seems an Irish date has slipped through the net . They said the only chance is a possible festival appearance next year
i didn’t think you could answer for decisions like that Jim.. i know it smacks of pedantry to raise the point but it just really got up my nose to see it.. i’ve seen you say yourself here a few times that you’d rather hear anything new than any established artistes retread through their stylings, so i’ve no doubt it ain’t your call!
speaking of established artistes, the fabulous battles will be here on sunday.. one band i really want to see live to see how they’re translating their record from earlier in the year. i thought it a total departure from mirrored, once the veneer of first listen is penetrated. awesome tropical rhythms scattered throughout it.. if mirrored didn’t exist it’d be hailed as one of the year’s great albums IMO..
@38
I saw Battles at Forbidden Fruit and wasnt overly impressed. Havent heard the new album but i hate that ” Ice Cream ” track off it
@39 yeah mates of mine were at FF fest and said they weren’t really suited to the outdoor setting that well, they need nighttime, indoor venue etc.. Have to agree to disagree on ice cream scarecrows.. That’s a cracking single, as sublime as it is ridiculous.. Maybe check out the track they did with singer from Blonde Redhead on the album as an entry point to the album, sleek, slinky, funky and fun..