... listening to:Paul Auster reading Auggie Wren's Christmas Storyon NPR. 'Tis the season . . .
Written on the Forehead,a track by PJ Harvey is a nice foretaste of her next album, Let England Shake.
... watching
Snow-themed film favourites The Thing, Scarfaceand Cliffhanger(a guilty pleasure). We'll be reading The Deadnext.
... counting
The number of events cancelled because of the weather and the empty seats left by punters trapped at home. Not since the volcano emptied the skies has there been such disruption.
... mourning
Leslie Nielsen (left). Favourite Twitter death announcement: “So, Leslie Nielsen died in hospital. It’s a big building with windows, but that’s not important right now.”
... saying
“ ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ is an album that throws hip-hop into a whole new stratosphere while positioning West in a different realm. For now, it’s his masterpiece, but you know he’ll try better next time out."
Jim Carroll gives Kanye West’s album five stars in The Ticket
... happy we went to
The Ruby Sessions in Doyle’s on College Green on Tuesday. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the determination of the hundred or so people who braved said weather, but more than likely it was the fact Paul Brady, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Mundy and Fiach were all playing in one candle-lit venue, on the same night, for €6.
... packing our bags for
Other Voices, in Dingle. RTÉ has never treated it as well as it should, but when the acts turn up for several days of gigs in a small church it creates one of the best. Most low-key festival of the year. This year's line-up includes Jarvis Cocker, The National, Laura Marling, O Emperor, And So I Watch You From Afar and Cathy Davey.
... looking forward to
Next week’s spectacular Coronation Street 50th-anniversary shows, if only because we’re hoping Molly, Kevin and Nick all get killed off in the impending tram crash.
The National Live at the Olympia
The National stroll on stage at the Olympia without fuss. They seem surprised to be here, and little wonder – they arrived at the venue just five minutes before the show, having spent five hours on a Heathrow runway, followed by a diversion to Shannon and a cross-country dash to open their three-night Dublin residency, ahead of a scheduled performance at Other Voiceson Sunday night in Kerry. For once, a tour manager and front-house staff get warm thanks from the stage for a job well done.
Their ragged journey westward might go some way towards explaining a relative rustiness. The sound is poor, and picking out individual instruments is difficult. Matt Berninger wanders about the stage like a man who has lost his keys. The band take a long time to settle and it is not until about five tracks in, with Afraid of Everyone, that they find a sense of coherence. On record, each instrument occupies its own airy niche in the mix, which builds to a powerful whole. Live, though, when the sound is splintered, it can sound confused, and the main drive seems to be the crowd's familiarity with the tracks.
The National, though, have something of a reputation as a slow-burn band and there are signs the touchpaper has been lit. As the evening stretches they find a fluency that improves with each track. By the end of the night, and a four-song encore containing a roaring Terrible Lovewhile Berninger plunges into the crowd, and an acoustic version of Vanderlyle Cry Baby, with the musicians lined up front of stage, leading the crowd in a mass singalong, the band have the audience in the palm of their hand. This is not the astonishing gig the band has promised since an almost mythic performance in the Olympia some years ago – but with two more nights to go, the potential is there. For once, being nationalised is a pleasure.
Laurence Mackin
