by on

One of only a handful of indoor dates on the current stretch of his tour in support of second solo LP proper Lazaretto, Jack White’s seamless blend of folk, blues, country, hip- hop and old- school rock n’ roll reveals an artist who combines a wealth of experience with youthful hunger and enthusiasm, writesPhilip Cummins

Jack White attacking his Fender Telecaster. Photo: David Swanson. Source: Jackwhiteiii.com

Jack White attacking his Fender Telecaster. Photo: David Swanson. Source: Jackwhiteiii.com


Originally published by Entertainment Ireland. To read the original, please click here.

SPEAKING to BBC Radio One’s Zane Lowe during a live session prior to tonight’s sold out show in Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo, Nashville based Detroit native Jack White vented his frustration of playing his sets at festivals and outdoor venues, particularly in light of his recent performance at Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, which received mixed reactions from critics and fans alike: “I guess I’m trying to put on a club show for 100 people in front of 100,000 people”,  conceded 39 year- old White.

Previously, White has described festivals as “a necessary evil”. In an interview with BBC news during September 2012, White claimed “I don’t get excited about festivals – they’re not my favourite place to play…everyone’s drinking and lazing in the sun and walking around and that’s a fun thing for them but it’s not interesting for me.”

Tonight’s show, then, finds White in his natural habitat; an indoor venue packed with a capacity crowd of 8,500 dedicated fans who snapped up tickets within minutes of the show going on general sale, the show selling out almost immediately.

Jack White jamming with his band of seasoned players. Image: Dan Swanson. Source:

Jack White jamming with his band of seasoned players. Image: Dan Swanson. Source: jackwhiteiii.com

Tearing into ‘Sixteen Saltines’ from 2012’s excellent Blunderbuss, White’s band of seasoned players perform comfortably at their own rhythm, mixing up the tempo of the song and improvising naturally and with little labour. White Stripes fan favorites ‘Astro’, ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground’ and ‘Hotel Yorba’ follow, the latter of which is given a “Nashville” treatment with added fiddle and pedal steel, gaining more character and depth with additional musical arrangements.

Similarly, tonight’s version of ‘Top Yourself’, a White tune from The Raconteurs’ Consolers of the Lonely, gains more intensity and more complexity. It’s the effortless blend of bluegrass arrangements with White’s ferocious guitar tones that make a fine example of White’s negotiation of the Americana roots music of Nashville and the garage rock of his native Detroit. The same is true of ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As Your Told)’ from 2007 White Stripes record Icky Thump, the title track of which also blends beautifully with the title track of recent second solo album proper Lazaretto.

Throughout tonight’s set, it becomes more and more apparent that styles win out: the rap- rock of ‘Lazaretto’; the frenetic blues of ‘Ball and the Biscuit’ (recorded at London’s Toe Rag studios during sessions for 2002 classic Elephant); the Nirvana- inspired ‘Steady, As She Goes’; the Let it Bleed– era Rolling Stones- inspired ‘Just One Drink’; the funk- blues of Lazaretto opener ‘Three Women’, based on Blind Willie McTell’s ‘Three Women Blues’.

Jack White holding his beloved 1950′s Kay Hollowbody Archtop guitar during a break in set closer 'Seven Nation Army'

Jack White holding his beloved 1950′s Kay Hollowbody Archtop guitar during a break in set closer ‘Seven Nation Army’. Image: Dan Swanson. Source: jackwhiteiii.com

While ‘Seven Nation Army’, arguably White’s best known track, is becoming old hat as a set – closer, it’s the sheer breadth of White’s musical references and, most importantly, his interpretation of those references that marks him out as a true original.

Tonight, as with last night’s secret, medical- themed show in a basement just off London’s Strand,  after which White theatrically collapsed on stage and later wheeled off stage on a stretcher, it’s clear that White is occupying the same ground as Tom Waits did in the 1980s; an uncompromising artist and performer, gloriously and blissfully out of step with modern tastes and trends and a showman  who makes his peers look like wallflowers. We’re lucky to have him.

Jack White and his band bid the audience good night after a triumphant show at London's Hammersmith Apollo.

Jack White and his band bid the audience good night after a triumphant show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.  Image: Dan Swanson. Source: jackwhiteiii.com


Set List

  1. Sixteen Saltines
  2. Astro (The White Stripes song)
  3. Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
  4. High Ball Stepper
  5. Lazaretto
  6. Hotel Yorba
  7. Temporary Ground
  8. Ramblin’ Man / Cannon / Ramblin’ Man / Cannon
  9. Icky Thump
  10. Missing Pieces
  11. Three Women
  12. Love Interruption
  13. Blunderbuss
  14. Top Yourself
  15. I’m Slowly Turning Into You
  16. Holiday in Cambodia (Dead Kennedys cover) (snippet)
  17. Ball and Biscuit

Encore:

  1. Just One Drink
  2. Alone in My Home
  3. You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)
  4. Hello Operator
  5. Would You Fight for My Love?
  6. Broken Boy Soldier
  7. Blue Blood Blues
  8. Steady, As She Goes
  9. Seven Nation Army


What Twitter Thought

by on

Brooklyn based five piece Real Estate.

Brooklyn based five piece Real Estate. Image: Facebook

Originally published by Entertainment Ireland on Wednesday 28th May, 2014. To read the original, please click here

 

TONIGHT’S capacity audience at Whelans (Promoters moved the gig from The Workman’s Club to Whelans, due to demand) is good news for anyone who was under the impression that guitar music is dead. Support act Jet Setter, flanked by Villagers drummer James Byrne, are an apt choice of support act, channeling the same compacted pop aesthetics of tonight’s headline act.

Arriving on stage at 9:35pm to a capacity audience, Brooklyn- based New Jersey natives Real Estate ease into their seventeen song set with ‘April’s Song’, a beautiful, instrumental track from 2014’s Atlas, which must certainly be one of the year’s finest albums.

Following up swiftly with a salvo of ‘Crime’, the opening track from the second side of Atlas, ‘Past Lives’, a dreamy pop song also lifted from Atlas, as well as fan favourite ‘Easy’, the opening track off of 2012’s breakthrough album second album Days, it becomes more and more clear that Days and Atlas are two parts of a trilogy, the songs from both albums blending seamlessly with one another in a set that reveals the band’s consistency for writing snappy tunes.

Throughout the set, it’s hard not to notice singer / guitarist Martin Courtney, who despite his efforts to play down his role at centre stage is a remarkable presence. Something of a reluctant frontman, Courtney is a mish- mash of almost every young, anxious, bookish, suburban, indie- rock male singer / songwriter of recent decades, recalling Death Cab For Cutie‘s Ben Gibbard, Pavement‘s Steve Malkmus, The Shins‘ James Mercer and, at times, IRS- era Michael Stipe. Just as on record, Real Estate’s sound is subtle and underpinned with only the slightest use of chorus / phaser effects pedals and arpeggiated chords that define the band’s jangly guitar pop.

Similarly, recently recruited drummer Jackson Pollis, towels covering his snare drum and tom- tom drums for a smooth, muffled drum sound, plays with the kind of simplicity and precision that suits the band’s tight, compressed pop songs. Somewhat aware of their reserved, meek image, the band playfully improvise on snippets of hard rock covers in- between songs. The most rapturously received song of the night, undoubtedly, is Atlas‘ flagship single, ‘Talking Backwards’; a wry take on communication problems in a relationship.

Real Estate won’t have a set full of dynamics and gear changes to sustain a two-hour set until the third instalment of their trilogy of suburbia- focused jangle pop. For those who missed out on tonight’s spellbinding display of natural, musical chemistry, however, a 22nd October gig at The Academy has recently been announced; further proof that Real Estate are the year’s hottest property.

by on
Dublin four piece Codes, live at Whelans. Photo: Ruth Medjber

Dublin four piece Codes, live at Whelans. Photo: Ruth Medjber


Originally published by Entertainment Ireland on Tuesday 3rd June, 2014. To read the original, please click here.


IT’S hard not to watch Dublin four piece Codes- two members of which live in Dublin, another two based in London- and not recall Bono’s claim that U2 were always “a band of the future”. Melodic, uniquely 21st century electronica layers Codes’ anthems- in- waiting, some of which have clear nods to Achtung Baby- era U2, Doves and Snow Patrol.

Indeed, it’s the aura, more than anything, that Codes generate that recalls the aforementioned bands. Singer/guitarist Daragh Anderson’s opening arpeggiated notes, played through a Digitech Whammy IV pedal- favoured by the likes of Jonny Greenwood and Matt Bellamy- creates an intense, sci- fi- esque atmosphere that sets the tone for what follows. Drawing largely from 2009’s Trees Dream in Algebra, fan favourites such as ‘You Are Here’, ‘Cities’ and ‘This Is Goodbye’- the latter of which loyal fans belt out as if it if their life depended on it- make up the share of the setlist, just as loyal fans make up the share of the audience. The band, however, also treat fans to songs from AALTARS, their sophomore effort due later in the year. AALTARS‘ flagship single ‘Astraea’ signals at the band’s development over the three years since thier Choice- nominated début.

Mid- way through the set, one can’t help but feel that a clear formula for Codes’ sound and tunes is emerging, leading to the set to become somewhat predictable. It’s then that the band drop ‘Bleed Blue’, a song on which bassist Eoin Stephens and guitarist / keys player Raymond Hogge take to percussion duties on a slow- burning tune that climaxes with crashing drums, hinting at another dimension to the band’s sound.

Codes drummer Niall Woods, recruited into the band in 2012.

Codes drummer Niall Woods, recruited into the band in 2012. Photo: Ruth Medjber

In fact, it’s the drums, tonight, that set Codes apart from many Irish bands in their league. It’s clear that Codes’ recent addition, Niall Woods, who replaced Paul Reilly in Summer 2012, is the dynamo behind the band’s sound, his ability to shift between standard, 4/4, rock / pop rhythms and the polyrhythms so essential to the band’s sound being one of the key links between Codes’ fusion of stadium rock and electronica. It’s uncertain as to whether second album AALTARS will overshadow the success of their EMI- supported, Choice nominated début, but tonight sees a band very comfortable in the direction that they’re taking and who have a definite sense of what it is they are about.

by on

Originally published by Entertainment Ireland on 24 March 2014. To read the original, please click here

Franz Ferdinand on flying form in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre

TEN YEARS ON since THAT debut, Franz Ferdinand are not the Young Turks they were when they burst onto the scene in 2004: in 2014, Franz Ferdinand is not the trendiest name to drop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, nor London’s Brick Lane.

What Franz Ferdinand are- and how quickly we can take Glasgow’s finest for granted- are a band brimming with tight tunes: structurally solid songs with more muscular riffs, pulsating rhythms, sing-along choruses and witty lyrics than at which you can shake an irony- laden t-shirt.

Opening with ‘Bullet’, the opening song of the second side of 2013’s return- to- form Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, following 2009’s misstep Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, Kapranos and Co. immediately follow ‘Bullet’ with two cuts from Franz Ferdinand– ‘The Dark of the Matinée’ and ‘Tell Her Tonight’- before returning to Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action territory with standout single ‘Evil Eye’. The opening four tunes, correctly, align their 2004 debut with their latest effort, both albums being two sides of the same coin.

Indeed, the Domino Recording Company band draw eight songs from Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, six from Franz Ferdinand, and four each from You Could Have It So Much Better and Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.

What the band demonstrates best at tonight’s sold out show, however, is their intuitive understanding of dynamics. The opening stompers are soon followed by tender ballads ‘Fresh Strawberries’ (Right Thoughts…) and ‘Walk Away’ (You Could Have It So Much Better), confidently omitting ‘Eleanor Put Your Boots On’, their gorgeous 2006 single, stressing the sheer range of their song- writing.

Better still, the band eschew insincere banter with the audience, instead milking the hooks, phrases and middle eights of standout songs with no small amount of sardonic showbiz schmaltz. The opening phrase to ‘Take Me Out’ is played to galleries for well over half a minute, the breaks in the ending hook of a rapturously received ‘Do You Want To’ are repeated at almost a dozen times than the recorded version and the slow- tempo verses of ‘The Dark of the Matinée’ are stressed to give that song’s barnstorming chorus more punch and vigour.

The most telling moment of tonight’s gig, however, comes from the preamble to ‘Fresh Strawberries’, a self- deprecating, a new tune from Right Thoughts… that chronicles the fall from grace of a once thriving mid- noughties band. Dedicating ‘Fresh Strawberries’ to tonight’s support act, Leeds quintet Eagulls, Kapranos sings the opening verse of We are fresh strawberries / Fresh burst of red strawberries / Ripe, turning riper in the bowl / We will soon be rotten / We will all be forgotten / Half remembered rumours of the old.

Of course, no- one here, tonight, really believes that Franz Ferdinand is noughties survivors; rather, I expect they think that the Glaswegian lads done good have still got the right tunes, right moves and are hitting all the right notes.

by on

Originally published on State.ie. To read the original, please click here.

San Diego rock band Rocket From The Crypt

IN WHAT CAN HARDLY BE DESCRIBED AS A CASH- IN, Rocket from the Crypt reunited in December 2012, beginning their first dates of their reunion tour in April 2013.

Championed back in the 90s by the likes of Dave Grohl – who is consistently linked to on/off rumours about producing Rocket from the Crypt’s comeback record- the San Diego band showed oodles of promise when they signed to Interscope in the mid-90s, even cracking the top 20 in the UK with ‘On a Rope’ and appearing on Top of the Pops; unheard of for a band borne out of the west coast hardcore scene of the 80s/early 90s. Their 1995 breakthrough record, Scream, Dracula, Scream! sounds as fresh and vital, today, as it did back then.

Tonight, there’s no shortage of greying rockabilly quiffs and RFTC t-shirt-clad fans who would probably claim to have bought the original, red-coloured vinyl – deleted immediately after release – of 1995’s once ultra rare, though since reissued, Hot Charity. The band’s set caters, mainly, to those loyal and fervent fans of the band, playing cuts from Scream, Dracula, Scream!, as well as 1998’s RFTC and 2001’s Group Sounds, all of which are well represented tonight. In fact, many of the songs from each album are performed in the same sequence as the records: ‘Straight American Slave’ and ‘Carne Voodoo’ from Group Sounds open the set, while the highlight of the night is a groove in the set created by ‘Middle’, ‘Born in ‘69’, ‘On a Rope’ and ‘Young Livers’, which elicit the loudest cheers of the night from an otherwise reserved audience. An awesome version of ‘I’m Not Invisible’ is a reminder, like the best cuts from Scream, Dracula, Scream! of the band’s ability to write instantly catchy songs that get the audience on their side from the get-go.

Clad in black shirts featuring Chinese dragons, the band members look like a gang and, in 2013, they must seem an anomaly among younger groups, now, that lack the uniformity, and that sense of identity that was has been central to Rocket from the Crypt as a unit. Unfortunately, the core problem throughout tonight’s set, however, is the sound. What set Rocket from the Crypt apart from any other American rock band of their time was their use of a brass section in the form of saxophonist Apollo 9 (Paul O’Beirne) and trumpeter JC 2000 (Jason Crane), both of whose instruments are far too low in the mix to have the impact that they have on record. Similarly, frontman Speedo’s vocals are slightly shot from previous gigs on their recent tour and, again, his vocals are consistently overshadowed by the guitars and by the drums.

An extended version of ‘Come See, Come Saw’, again, lacks the punch and power of the brass section, though the band use the recurring bass riff as an opportunity to loosen up the set and make it seem loose and unpredictable. Speedo interacts with the audience in irony- laced showbiz theatrics, including directing the audience into dance routines.

Eschewing such bravado, Speedo salutes the audience for one last time during the night. “Thanks for not forgetting about us”, he says as he parts from the stage, somewhat confirming the band’s status as 90’s rock survivors. And if rumors of a Grohl- produced comeback album do come to fruition, it won’t be the last time Speedo is saluting his audience from the stage.

by on

Originally featured in the online edition of the Irish Post.

Clad in a chic leather jacket and dark-rimmed glasses and swinging her hips down stage right to bassist and collaborator Paul Bryan’s down stage left, Aimee Mann betrays her 52 years. Youthful and sprightly, she appears as a cross between the ethereal, angelic Emmylou Harris and the geeky charm of Elvis Costello; like the former, she posses a strong, commanding voice; like the latter, her work, unfortunately, ranges from the remarkable to the forgettable.

In what is a fully seated show, Mann has her loyal and devoted fan base- who have, no doubt, journeyed with Mann through her eight albums of output, including 2012’s patchy release,  Charmer- in the palm of her hand from opener ‘Disappeared’. In what is very much a show of two halves, Mann’s set unequal. The first half draws primarily from Charmer and 1995’s I’m With Stupid, including the latter’s ‘You Could Make A Killing’, which Mann has previously claimed was written about her one- time infatuation with Noel Gallagher.

While it’s clearly evident that Mann knows her way with  the fundamentals of Power Pop; that is, 4/4, mid- tempo, major key, blues- pop that owes much to the classic I-IV-V major progression, it all feels slightly samey: the song arrangements are too similar to each other, and Mann’s unremarkable tunes bleed into one another. There is also a distinct lack of surprise and both Mann and her band look very much on auto pilot.

True, Mann is a crafty wordsmith, so it’s unfortunate that her literate lyrics, including much of her narrative- driven tunes from her concept album about a journey man boxer, The Forgotten Arm, are drowned out in the mix by two keyboard players, particularlyCharmer’s title track, which is laden in Moog synthesizer sounds. Indeed, the selections from Charmer are full of the kind of sneering, self- deprecating cynicism that defined the best songs of Soft Rock and New Wave, but which is distinctly lacking in pop songs today. That said, however, there are sloppy, hackneyed metaphors and clichés abound, such as ‘Labrador’ and the album’s title track. Clearly, quality control is an issue, and one gets the feeling that a writer of Mann’s calibre and experience should know better.

All is not lost, however. When Mann’s backing band leave the stage, Mann performs selections from her soundtrack to Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2000 masterpiece, and the soundtrack’s companion album, 2000’s Bachelor No. 2. During the descending G minor / G seventh minor introduction to ‘Save Me’- Mann’s Oscar-nominated song and, arguably, her best-known song- Mann indulges her audience in a spot of light- hearted jibes aimed at Phil Collins, who beat her to the Oscar. Rivaled only by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mann makes an excellent raconteur. A craft in itself, Mann’s on- stage banter between songs diffuses the intensity of her tunes, allowing her to present and perform her songs in a way that is inclusive and, above all, entertaining.

Not only is it refreshing at this point of the set that Mann’s lyrics can finally come through in the mix, but the stripped down and sonically arresting arrangements of the Magnolia and material open up an infinitely more interesting dimension to Mann’s material. Indeed, ‘Wise Up’, a seminal, Solo- piano song, which was an integral soundtrack to a defining sequence in P.T. Anderson’s sprawling movie, has Mann’s Dublin audience spellbound and in awe. Finally, the gravitas of Mann’s mature and oaky voice can take centre stage.

After what can only be the most resounding round of applause of the night, Mann’s band once again grace the stage for Mann’s cover version of Harry Nilsson’s ‘One’, which features in the opening credits of Magnolia. As the lush harmonies, tremolo- heavy guitar, swelling organ and crashing symbols all work together to build during the song’s chorus, one can’t help but feel that this is the band at their most interesting, exciting, suspenseful and less predictable. It is this kind of sweeping, sonically diverse material that is lacking in Mann’s catalogue.

Gamely taking requests from audience members, Mann’s audience of die- hards call out songs so obscure that Mann no longer knows how to play them. Eventually, Mann settles on ‘Invisible Ink’ from 2002’s Lost in Space. Keeping feel- good vibe of the night alive, she recalls her trip earlier in the day to the statue of Phil Lynott outside Bruxelles on Dublin’s Harry Street before launching into a cover of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Honesty is No Excuse’ with support act Ted Leo playing Eric Bell’s audacious lead guitar parts. Earlier in the night, Leo had provided backing vocals on Charmer’s ‘Living a Lie’, which, on record, features backing vocals by The Shins’ James Mercer.

Closing on a dizzying high with Bachelor No. 2 highlight ‘Deathly’, complete with one of the best opening lines ever written in song (Now that I’ve met you / Would you object to / Never Seeing each other again),  Mann makes up for the lyrical shortcomings of recent material.

Fans may not have long to wait until Mann’s work graces the Grand Canal Theatre again: a stage musical, adapted from her 2005 album The Forgotten Arm and written in collaboration with heavily in- demand Hollywood screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), might be with us soon. And while Charmer may not be enough to win Mann new admirers, the savvy Virginian certainly has the songs and stagecraft to remind those who take her granted of her mercurial talent.

by on

Finishing up the European leg of his tour, Nick Lowe saunters on stage, solo, with his acoustic guitar in front of a reservedVicar Streetaudience, seated at round tables on the ground floor. No longer happy to drift on the nostalgia of his 70’s heyday, Lowe has long left behind his career as producer and mentor to the most successful exponents of British New Wave (Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Squeeze) and, for almost 25 years, has entrenched himself in American roots music.

Opening with ‘Stoplight Roses’ from his latest release, The Old Magic, Lowe’s warm, mellow voice and austere instrumentation cut an arresting presence. It’s clear that, like Richard Hawley, Lowe draws from a songwriting well that projects a romantic view of loneliness; mainly American country songwriters and performers such as George Jones, Ray Price and Patsy Cline. A stunning, styled rendition of ‘Heart’, a song by Lowe’s former band Rockpile, concludes Lowe’s two- song solo set. As Lowe starts into ‘What Lack of Love Has Done’ from 1998’s Dig My Mood his band, including support act Geraint Watkins on keys, make their way on stage, which makes for a smooth change in dynamics early in the set.

The sheer breath of Lowe’s songbook comes into full force in the middle section of the set when ‘I Read A Lot’, a sombre, slow- burning number from The Old Magic is followed immediately by ‘Cruel To Be Kind’, Lowe’s first big pop hit, which he recently performed withUS tour- mates Wilco. The chemistry of the band is most evident on the big pop numbers, namely ‘Cruel To Be Kind’ and ‘When I Write the Book’.

After the encore, Lowe and Watkins return on stage for a duet of Watkins’ ‘Only a Rose’ and a powerful performance of ‘When I Write the Book’, which, like ‘Cruel to Be Kind’, is when the band are at their most loose and playful. As if to further emphasize that he is not enslaved by the New Wave sound that he helped to define, Lowe’s acoustic, slow- tempo version of ‘(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding’ carries just as much weight on Lowe’s acoustic guitar and finds its place among his roots- influenced songbook and the youthful exuberance of the original studio version is side- stepped in favor of a version which casts Lowe as wiser, more mature man than the angry young man who originally wrote the tune.

It is, however, Lowe’s second encore which provides the night’s highlight. Walking on stage, solo, with his acoustic once again, Lowe performs a beautiful, measured version of ‘Alison’, a song produced by Lowe which was written by his former protégée, Elvis Costello. In a sense, it encapsulates Nick Lowe’s songwriting style and model; the well- worn Englishness of Ray Davies’sEnglandset to the American songbook of folk / country / soul music. The old magic, indeed.

by on

Noel Gallagher has reason to swagger on stage at the Olympia Theatre. After only one week of sales, Gallagher’s debut solo album, which topped both the UK and Irish albums charts, is already outselling Beady Eye’s Different Gear, Still Speeding. Add to this the opening his first ever solo tour in his ancestral hometown of Dublin and the result of the Manchester derby and the former guitarist and chief songwriter in Oasis has no reason not to be in excellent form.

Indeed, Gallagher is in a playful mood tonight, initiating banter between audience members, despite his warning in press interviews that he was an uncomfortable and inexperienced frontman. He opens the set, confidently, with an Oasis B-side, ‘(It’s Good) To Be Free’, the title and chorus of which, alone, carry symbolic and rhetorical weight to the nature of the night’s event and is, no doubt, a gift to the red-tops who are still generating stories and interest from Oasis’s messy split two years ago. During a successive run, half a dozen or so songs in, of ‘Everybody’s On The Run’, ‘Dream On’, ‘If I Had A Gun’, ‘The Good Rebel’, ‘The Death Of You And Me’, and a massive, early Kinks-sounding untitled new track, one realizes that Gallagher has not only the tunes but also the backing band to go the distance. Mike Rowe, who played keyboards during Oasis’ Be Here Now world tour, is a crucial player in the band, skillfully negotiating the middle eight of ‘The Death Of You And Me’, which on record features a New Orleans-style marching band, but tonight is convincingly replaced with the twinkling sound of a bar-room piano.

What works the best tonight are the dynamics, a sign of the old stager that he is. After a blazing run through the first eight songs with his full band, he brings the feel of the set down a couple of gears and reduces the line-up to just himself on acoustic guitar, drummer / percussionist Jeremy Stacy and Rowe. Together, they run through a rejuvenated ‘Wonderwall’, in which Noel blends hallmarks of Ryan Adams 2004 cover version of the track with his distinctive tenor voice. This is followed by the most surprising song choice of the night; an acoustic version of Oasis’ 1994 debut single, ‘Supersonic’, which lends insight into how it might have sounded when he first wrote the song on an acoustic guitar all those years ago in his Manchester flat.

There’s no question that Gallagher is playing to a home crowd of dedicated Oasis fans, some of whom may have attended and may have distinct memories of Oasis’s December 4th & 5th nights in The Point Depot in 1997 when Noel took over lead vocal duties from a missing-in-action Liam. Tonight, however, the songs which elicit the loudest cheers and sing-alongs of the night aside from ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, which appeal to casual fans and die-hard fans alike, are those B-sides that are held in such high regard with Oasis devotees such as ‘Half The World Away’ and ‘Talk Tonight’.

The night ends, somewhat predictably, with a definitive, three song encore of some of Oasis’ most successful stadium rock anthems. An acoustic-led ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, an excellent band performance of ‘The Importance Of Being Idle’ and ‘Little By Little’, which, when played tonight, feels close in sentiment and style to some of the tracks on Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and satisfy Oasis fans even if ending on those songs threaten to eclipse his current solo songs. However, it’s a mark of the wealth of material that Gallagher can draw from over the past 18 years that many of his band era songs, such as ‘Sunday Morning Call’, ‘Where Did It All Go Wrong’ and ‘Let’s All Make Believe’ – all of which would have gelled well with the sound and feel of his current solo material – are sadly omitted from the night’s set. But with Gallagher’s falsetto hitting all the notes, a versatile and ambitious backing band and a set list of choice cuts that successfully tie together a broad and prolific songwriting career, it’s not a bad way to open his live account at all.

Originally published by State.ie

©  Philip Cummins. All rights reserved.

Setlist for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Live at The Olympia Theatre, Dublin, October 23rd, 2011

  1. (It’s Good) To Be Free
    (Oasis cover)
  2. Mucky Fingers
    (Oasis cover)
  3. Everybody on the Run
  4. Dream On
  5. If I Had a Gun…
  6. The Good Rebel
  7. The Death of You and Me
  8. Freaky Teeth
  9. Wonderwall
    (Oasis cover)
  10. Supersonic
    (Oasis cover)
  11. (I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine
  12. AKA… What a Life!
  13. Talk Tonight
    (Oasis cover)
  14. Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks
  15. AKA…Broken Arrow
  16. Half The World Away
    (Oasis cover)
  17. (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach

Encore:

  1. Don’t Look Back In Anger
    (Oasis cover)
  2. The Importance of Being Idle
    (Oasis cover)
  3. Little By Little
    (Oasis cover)

by on

 

Billed in all but name as a rock dinosaur double-header, Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler’s opening show of their joint European tour is no doubt one for blues fans with deep pockets. Blues music- American roots music, in general- flows deep for both Dylan and Knopfler, the latter exploring American roots music more ardently since he left Dire Straits in 1995. Indeed, Knopfler produced and collaborated with Dylan on the latter’s 1979 and 1983 records, Slow Train Coming and Infidels, respectively, at a time when Dylan’s career had hit its nadir and Knopfler was about to break the big time with Dire Straits.

Ahead of the night’s main attraction and performing separately, Knopfler takes to the stage with a band not too dissimilar in sound and feel as Dylan’s. Currently taking time out from recording his next record, Knopfler draws heavily from the solo career he first pursued with 1996’s Golden Heart in a live set that gels well with the sound, songs and feel of Bob Dylan’s records and live shows of the last 10 years. Although those expecting ‘Walk of Life’ or ‘Sultans of Swing’ might have been disappointed by the distinct lack of hits, Knopfler’s folk-leaning roots music shuffles along, opening with ‘What Aye Man’ from 2002’s The Ragpacker’s Dream. Debuted from, presumably, the current sessions for his next record, ‘Corned Beef City’ and ‘Privateering’ both feel fully realised and suggest that his preoccupation with folk / blues / Americana is a long way from being over.

Sauntering onstage to the theatrical and now routine stage announcement that condenses Dylan’s 50-year music career into a matter of sentences, Dylan and his band of session players kick off the night with an excellent rendition of ‘Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat’. The dramatic opening is followed swiftly by a restless, shuffling and countrified ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’, which shows Dylan’s voice to be more full, warm and defined than shows of recent years.

Dylan then moves away from the organ, which he has been stood at like Jerry Lee Lewis, and takes centre stage for ‘Things Have Changed’, the song which landed him an Oscar almost ten years ago, to a warm applause. The phrasing, as has been the case with Dylan’s performances for some time, is rapid fire. At times, his delivery is awkward and betrays the studio recordings to the point where it may take time to figure out which song it is he is performing. ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ falls victim to Dylan’s re-phrasing, though, tonight, the chorus retains the melodic punch of the studio recording yet has the Chess Records feel that Dylan has sought on almost all of his records since 1997’s career changing Time Out of Mind.

The junk yard-blues of ‘Beyond Here Lies Nothin’’ is reminiscent of ‘Swordfishtrombones’-era Tom Waits and Dylan gives the set a lift in the right place, only for it to dip again with a pedestrian performance of ‘Spirit On The Water’ from 2006’s Modern Times. However, Dylan and his cowboy band soon gain momentum again with ‘Desolation Row’, ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, ‘Thunder On The Mountain’ and ‘Ballad Of A Thin Man’ forming a groove in the set that finds Dylan and his band peaking just before the night’s encore.

With Mark Knopfler on the bill, there’s an expectation that he might join Dylan for an encore of Infidels lead single ‘Jokerman’ or perhaps ‘Blind Willie McTell’, a lost Dylan outtake from theInfidels sessions, which Knopfler co- wrote with Dylan. Disappointingly, it doesn’t happen, though Dylan and his merry men take to the stage for an encore of ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ and ‘All Along The Watchtower’, the former which raises the roof off the house, the latter trailing off into mid bursts of blues playing from Dylan’s band.

Dylan’s refusal to engage with his audience means that he doesn’t attract the same adulation, live, which Leonard Cohen, for example, has courted on stage during his touring of recent years. The distance that he keeps from his audience is so that one could sympathise with the steady stream of fans leaving the venue before the night’s end (no doubt insulted by Dylan’s perceived contempt for his audience and frustrated at how foreign the sound and arrangements of some of the songs sound in comparison to studio recordings). What they don’t realise, however, is that though Dylan has appeared to us in many guises, he is still the same uncompromising rebel he always was. Dylan has managed to integrate his vast catalogue of songs to the point where they are all, consistently, in dialogue with one another. Although Dylan’s next move, in terms of recording or completing his long-overdue second installmentChronicles is vague, he will surely continue to play live in the same style and feel as he has for, at least, the last 10–15 years. His success at achieving his singular vision for his songs that he feels he needs to keep the material fresh, coupled with the appetite that he still has to play live, suggests that his so-called Never Ending Tour won’t be winding down anytime soon.

Originally published by State.ie

Setlist for Bob Dylan – Live at The O2, Dublin, October 6th, 2011

  1. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
  2. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
  3. Things Have Changed
  4. Tangled Up In Blue
  5. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
  6. Spirit On The Water
  7. The Levee’s Gonna Break
  8. Desolation Row
  9. Highway 61 Revisited
  10. Forgetful Heart
  11. Thunder On The Mountain
  12. Ballad Of A Thin Man
    Encore:
  1. Like A Rolling Stone
  2. All Along The Watchtower
Setlist for Mark Knopfler – Live at The O2, Dublin, October 6th, 2011
  1. Why Aye Man
  2. Cleaning My Gun
  3. Corned Beef City (New Song)
  4. Sailing to Philadelphia
  5. Hill Farmer’s Blues
  6. Privateering (New Song)
  7. Song for Sonny Liston
  8. Done With Bonaparte
  9. Marbletown
  10. Speedway at Nazareth

by on

Looking at Ron Sexsmith’s attire this evening – an embroidered jacket worthy of a Nashville troubadour, complemented by Chelsea boots – you’d know from what school of the song he comes. With conventional structures that allow him to tell stories and melodies as firm and as memorable as those penned by his hero Paul McCartney, his songs are grounded in the simplicity and strength of a John Prine song. Although Sexsmith hasn’t crossed over from his cult status (more covers of his songs by fellow Canadian Michael Bublé might change all that), tonight’s audience is very much cross-generational. Those who first heard many of Sexsmith’s musical forebears, such as John Prine, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, in the 1970s are here, tonight, along with the younger generation who have tuned into these songwriters through artists such Sexsmith.

A shaky start involving a busted and battered Vox amp threatens tonight’s proceedings. Opening song ‘Heart’s Desire’ falls flat and seems like an unlikely way to kick off the set. When the shimmering, infectious pop of ‘Get in Line’, from this year’s Long Player Late Bloomer, follows up that the show begins in earnest. Sexsmith’s four-man band play unobtrusively, with his voice unusually high in the mix, and this is most evident on the slow burning ‘Hard Bargain’. After a thunderous ‘Believe it When I See It’, he follows with the song he opened with at his first Dublin show in Whelan’s almost 20 years ago, ‘Wastin’ Time’.

Shy and reserved in an interview, an affable Sexsmith reaches out to his audience, playing a request submitted though his website (a beautiful version of ‘Tomorrow In Her Eyes’) and relating a story about how he initially wrote ‘Gold In Them Hills’ for Bing Crosby. A magnificent, solo acoustic version of ‘Sleeping With The Angels’, the song that, in his words, “got him through the door,” is the most special point of the night.

The highpoint of the evening is a memorable encore, comprising of ‘Whatever It Takes’ (made famous by Michael Bublé), fan favorite ‘Lebanon, Tennessee’ and ‘Every Time I Follow’. Far from being an unreliable or patchy performer, you can’t help but feel Ron Sexsmith is on the brink of a career-defining festival slot. Lord knows he’s got the songs.

Originally published by State.ie