The Proclaimers, Katie Melua & others live The CLUAS Verdict? 8 out of 10 Full review: A 1:00pm start on Sunday was always going to be tough on he opening act, and Nizlopi drew the short straw. To be fair to John & Luke, they put in a professional performance in front of a handful of people, who like me all just wanted to hear the ‘JCB Song’. Sandi Thom rocked the place with a cover of ‘Proud Mary’ while telling the crowed that it was her 26th Birthday the previous day. She saved the singles  ‘What If I’m Right’ and ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker’ till the end, but the only criticism that took the gloss off her performance, was her refusal to sign an autograph for two fans who’d made themselves visible to her afterwards. Despite been 20 feet away, she turned and walked the other way. Duhks were a lot more accessible, and as the evening wore on Flook and Carlos Nunez also performed on the main stage... [Read on]

Live at the Awer IDP Camp, Gulu, Uganda  (July 2007) Review Snapshot: This gig was nothing like any I have ever been to before. I’ve been scratching my head trying to come up with a frame of reference, and all I’ve drawn are blanks. Was this a great gig? Well though was nothing like Toots & The Maytals in Vicar St, it was a different type of good. It was one of the most memorable gigs I have ever been to, the atmosphere was amazing, (the music more often than not wasn’t!), hell, it was probably a once in a lifetime experience. The CLUAS Verdict? 8.5 out of 10 Full review: We had arrived in Gulu two days previously, hot, sweaty and sore after a seemingly never ending bus ride from Kampala, a journey broken only by infrequent stops either to allow half the bus time to piss against its back tyre, or chain smoke in petrol stations. Gulu itself is a relatively small town in the north of Uganda, and for the last 20 years it has been large... [Read on]

The Aftermath live in the Stables, Mullingar Review Snapshot: Walking away relatively unscathed from a serious road accident the previous week, Mullingar’s finest The Aftermath return for a triumphant hometown gig in The Stables. The CLUAS Verdict? 8 out of 10 Full review: Before tonight’s main act The Aftermath, Pete Courtney seems like the calm before the storm. There is a delicate touch to his music, a subtle sophistication that is most evident in his upcoming new single ‘Instinct’, which gets an airing tonight. It is a beautiful piece of gentle melancholy, so good it even quietens the more talkative elements of the audience. No mean feat. In a country brimming over with soporific acoustic troubadours, Courtney stands out. The Aftermath know how to put on a show. On limited resources, they endeavour to make this gig both visually and aurally appealing. With their equipment festooned with glowing fairy-lights and a back projection showing... [Read on]

Os Mutantes live in Vicar Street, Dublin Review Snapshot: If one were to go and watch a football match featuring a returning from retirement Pele, Jairzihno and Tostao, you would probably expect, in spite of the brilliance that they demonstrated in their youth, for them to not be very good. Why should we expect better from recently unretired band of their countrymen? The CLUAS Verdict? 5 out of 10 Full review: Aside from in one of the episodes of David O’Doherty’s recent TV series where the comedian played a lunchtime show with no advertising to a crowd of about 7 I don’t think I’ve ever seen Vicar St. so empty as it is tonight.  Did you know that if a disastrously low number of people buy tickets for a gig they can draw the curtains across the balcony so the room doesn’t look as pathetically empty? I didn’t.  My skills at estimating crowds are really rather poor so it’s hard to gauge precisely how many people... [Read on]