https://www.cluas.com/indie-music RSS feeds for CLUAS Irish Indie Music 60 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/160/So-Cow-New-Amusement-and-more-at-HWCH-night-3#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=160 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=160&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/160/So-Cow-New-Amusement-and-more-at-HWCH-night-3 So Cow, New Amusement and more at HWCH (night 3) Review Snapshot: A rained soaked Dublin played host to the final night of this year’s HWCH. The night’s lineup was, to look at, the weakest of the 3 but as it turned out two of the weekend’s best sets took place on the final night. The Cluas Verdict? 7 out of 10 Full Review: Day 3 of 2008’s HWCH took place on a miserable wet Sunday evening which could have seriously put a damper on proceedings but things were rescued a little when it was decided to pull most of the bands from Meeting House Square and move them to indoors venues. This call wasn’t made in time for New Amusement who from their vantage point must have thought they were playing to a sparse but enthusiastic crowd of umbrellas. Their debut EP from a few months back was a fine collection of indie tunes and their set was based around that. But also dropped into the mix was some fresh material earmarked for their debut album due sometime next year and their closing song in particular, announced as their next single is quite a step forward from that release. With New Amusement wrapped it was off to Andrews Lane for no other reason that it was dry. Also there for more practical reasons were The Ambience Affair, a pair consisting of one guy on drums and another on vocals/guitar/loop pedal. The material was maybe a little singer-songwritery at times but Jamie Clarke’s prowess and imagination with his loop station dragged things up a couple of notches. He does a mean cover of Final Fantasy’s “The CN Tower belongs to the dead” as well. Weather conditions scuppered my plans to catch Heathers in the Academy so I stuck around ALT as Exit: Pursued By A Bear began their set. Garage rock isn’t my thing so I went easy on The Revellions on Friday. They could be great at what they do but it was never going to do anything for me. Exit: Pursued By A Bear on the other hand. They’re an indie rock band, and that IS my thing. I hated them, a lot. So much in fact I was forced out into the rain in search of something more palatable to my ears. Carly Sings released her debut album to positive reviews earlier in the year and was playing The Button Factory at the time. At least worth a cursory listen for free right? The weather had driven many other punters into the venue but many seemed content to chat over the music. This made the set virtually unlistenable, I felt quite sorry for the lone Blackman on stage for the few minutes I spent trying to listen to her. Next up was my first visit of the weekend to Temple Bar’s premiere toilet venue as So Cow was scheduled to play Eamon Dorans. Eschewing his usual setup of guitar, vocals and iPod backing tracks for a full band power trio lineup Brian Kelly’s songs greatly benefited from being able to be jammed out and stretched. Kelly is one of the country’s most prolific songwriters and don’t be surprised to see him release a couple of fresh albums in the next 18 or so months. So Cow’s brilliant set should have been a perfect way to finish the weekend but before I headed out into the night for home it was announced that The Vinny Club would be playing an unscheduled set in the venue to wrap up the festival. The band up after So Cow was the 202’s, who I imagine really like The Fall. No bad thing that. And to it was left to The Vinny Club to close out my festival. Same U2 schtick as the previous night, same brilliantly entertaining set, but this time with an extra special bonus stage invasion. Ian Wright In addition to Steven O'Rourke's Festival Diary for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of HWCH 2008, check out the following CLUAS reviews of bands who played the festival: One Day International, Mackerel the Cat and Others at HWCH (Day 3) Autamata, Sounds Of System Breakdown and Robotnik live at HWCH (Day 3) Foxface, Bats and others at HWCH (Saturday) Frightened Rabbit, The Vinny Club and Bats at HWCH (night 2) Crayonsmith, The Parks and A Lazarus Soul at HWCH Chequerboard, Alphamono and Fiach live at HWCH Nakatomi Plaza, Half Cousin and Lines Drawing Circles live at HWCH Super Extra Bonus Party, Groom and The Dublin Duck Dispensery live at HWCH More ... Ian Wright Mon, 15 Sep 2008 22:34:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:160 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/164/Frightened-Rabbit-The-Vinny-Club-and-Bats-at-HWCH-night-2#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=164 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=164&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/164/Frightened-Rabbit-The-Vinny-Club-and-Bats-at-HWCH-night-2 Frightened Rabbit, The Vinny Club and Bats at HWCH (night 2) Review Snapshot: Night 2 of 2008's HWCH saw the cream of the festival's lineup all crowbarred into a single night. A nice complaint to have I guess as there was pretty much always something worth seeing. The Cluas Verdict? 8 out of 10 Full Review: Night 2 of 2008’s HWCH festival threw up its own set of problems that were far more pleasing to deal with than those on Friday night. That being that most of the best bands on the festival had been given Saturday slots so there were all sorts of unfortunate clashes between bands that were worth seeing. What makes it worse is that tonight’s lineup is a little thin on the ground when it comes to quality and could have done with some bolstering. The lineup in particular in Andrew’s Lane was so good you could have stayed there for the whole evening and had top night’s entertainment. And that’s where the night began for me with Carlow brother and sister duo The Holy Roman Army. Mixing glitchy laptop beats and samples with live guitars and synths the pair make music (including a cover of “Wave Of Mutilation” a million miles away from the Pixies original) ideally suited for late at night or extremely early in the morning. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it out of my head, even in the darkened ALT, that it wasn’t even 8 PM when they wrapped up their set. Well worth seeing in more suitable circumstances though. Next up was Grand Pocket Orchestra. I don’t think there’s a band in Dublin that elicits a greater range of opinion from me than GPO does. Some of their kids TV lo-fi pop is as dumb sounding as anything I’ve ever heard. On the other hand there are times, especially on the songs from their first EP, when they strike gold. As for them last night, there was more good stuff than bad. The Vinny Club, a solo project from Adebisi Shank’s bassist, was probably the most entertaining thing I’ve seen or will see all weekend. Using a laptop to play songs constructed out of 8-bit video game samples from his recent Rocky IV Rekyrd (inspired by the movie in which Sly Stallone avenged the death of his former nemesis turned best friend by beating up a giant Swede in Moscow and ended the cold war with the phrase “I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change.”) If you’re wondering why a guy with a laptop and a midi controller can manage to be more entertaining than “real bands” are I should point out that the midi controller is a Guitar Hero guitar and that Vinny came to stage dressed as Bono circa the Zoo TV tour and mid-set press ganged a member of the audience into being his Edge by plonking a skull cap on his noggin and handing him the axe to rock out on. As great as all that was I did want to catch some of Bats in Meeting House Square. Fortunately the sound issues that plagued the previous night in the venue had been remedied somewhat. But Bats are a band that do require volume to work best and the levels, while not low or muddy enough to spoil things, didn’t do them any favours. Less reliant on volume was the dreamy, ambient sounds of the elegiac Halves. Though they had their own sound problems, namely the house music remained playing though their monitors for the first few songs of their set. With those 2 wrapped up it was back to Andrews Lane for what had been my most anticipated appearance of the weekend, and pretty much the whole reason I bothered going to the festival at all, a set by Selkirk’s Frightened Rabbit. Their second album, this years’ The Midnight Organ Fight is a little gem of a record addressing for the most past typical Scottish indie rock fare; drinking too much, falling in love too easily and taking too many pills. They’d had a bitch of a day and had to play using borrowed equipment as theirs never made their flight but Scott Hutchison’s anthemic songs carried through in spite of that. As good as I’d hoped that they’d be. They’ll return to Ireland in November opening for Death Cab For Cutie in Belfast and Dublin but hopefully they’ll be back here soon on their own and not playing support to annoyingly wimpish inferior bands. Ian Wright In addition to Steven O'Rourke's Festival Diary for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of HWCH 2008, check out the following CLUAS reviews of bands who played: One Day International, Mackerel the Cat and Others at HWCH (Sunday) So Cow, New Amusement and more at HWCH (night 3) Autamata, Sounds Of System Breakdown and Robotnik live at HWCH Day 3 Foxface, Bats and others at HWCH (Saturday) Crayonsmith, The Parks and A Lazarus Soul at HWCH Chequerboard, Alphamono and Fiach live at HWCH Nakatomi Plaza, Half Cousin and Lines Drawing Circles live at HWCH Super Extra Bonus Party, Groom and The Dublin Duck Dispensery live at HWCH More ... Ian Wright Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:01:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:164 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/168/Super-Extra-Bonus-Party-Groom-and-The-Dublin-Duck-Dispensery-live-at-HWCH#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=168 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=168&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/168/Super-Extra-Bonus-Party-Groom-and-The-Dublin-Duck-Dispensery-live-at-HWCH Super Extra Bonus Party, Groom and The Dublin Duck Dispensery live at HWCH Review Snapshot: The opening night of 2008’s HWCH festival saw bands faced with joke shop organistional problems and disgraceful sound in the festival’s main venue. Despite that there was plenty to enjoy. The Cluas Verdict? 7 out of 10 Full Review: After a brief flirtation with the POD complex last year The Hard Working Class Heroes Festival returned to its traditional home of Temple Bar and its environs last night to, at least on an organisational level, mixed results at best.  The first bands I saw were over the river in the Academy. Having spoken to a few people in the run up to the festival it seems that a lot of people are somewhat unenthusiastic about the prospect of making the trek over to Abbey Street. In all seriousness, it takes less than 5 minutes to walk there from The Button Factory/Meeting House Square. Upon my arrival I discovered that due to a miscommunication with the venue the closing band of the night, Class of 1984, who were due to finish up at 11:30 were expected to be done at 11 so the Academy could open its club. Apparently indie types where it’s the men that use GHD aren’t really the preferred clientele.  This meant that all sets were cut by 10 minutes and soundchecks seemingly consisted of “alright lads, are ya all plugged in to the amps? Ok, go.” It was actually a really shoddy state of affairs and completely unfair to the bands. Given the circumstances it was always going to be the bands whose sound could get away with being on the rough side that would handle the situation best. Enter the vaguely alt-country nerd stylings of Groom. Playing songs about love, death and maths and bolstered by an infrequent appearance by noisey co-founding guitarist Fiachra McCarthy (Pantone 24/7) the band had an edge that I’ve never heard from them at previous gigs. In spite of, or perhaps because, of the tricky conditions surrounding their set I’ve rarely enjoyed seeing Groom play more. Also able to overcome the lack of soundcheck were ultra lo-fi three-piece The Dublin Duck Dispensary who, as “they” up till now had been a home recording solo project, were making their live debut at the festival. And for a first gig they managed to be remarkably self assured, all scratchy guitars and synths and Islands influenced vocals with songs ranging in duration from 25 seconds to a couple of minutes. Provided that this wasn’t just a once off gig for them and they develop into a more regular going concern as a band due to their unique for  Dublin sound I do think this is a bunch that people could take notice of. Next up were The Revellions. I just don’t like the style of music that they make. After a couple of their retro garage rock numbers it was time to head off to Meeting House Square. And Meeting House Square is where the major problem for HWCH this year really became apparent. I’m not going to review the bands I saw playing because it’d be totally unfair to them.  Due to council imposed decibel level restrictions the sound in the venue was a complete and utter joke. Super Extra Bonus Party looked like they were giving it socks on the stage but out front it seemed like you were listening to them through water.  I realise that it’s somewhat a residential area but we’re talking about not that late in Temple Bar on weekend evening here. This is the supposed showpiece venue for the whole festival and to be honest they would have been better off not bothering their arses booking bands for the place. I can almost guarantee that despite quality bands like Bats, Halves, Fight Like Apes and others on the bill there over the course of the festival there won’t be a single really good gig there all weekend. And for what? So hen night revellers are able to hear themselves as they puke in to a gutter? At one point I thought that Northern Ireland’s Fighting With Wire, the final band of the night, were going to refuse to go on. Had they done so I can’t say I would have blamed them. Though to be honest, had I been able to hear them properly I doubt I would have been into them anyway. Ian Wright In addition to Steven O'Rourke's Festival Diary for Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of HWCH 2008, check out the following CLUAS reviews of bands who played the festival: One Day International, Mackerel the Cat and Others at HWCH (Sunday)So Cow, New Amusement and more at HWCH (night 3) Autamata, Sounds Of System Breakdown and Robotnik live at HWCH Day 3 Foxface, Bats and others at HWCH (Saturday) Frightened Rabbit, The Vinny Club and Bats at HWCH (night 2) Crayonsmith, The Parks and A Lazarus Soul at HWCH Chequerboard, Alphamono and Fiach live at HWCH Nakatomi Plaza, Half Cousin and Lines Drawing Circles live at HWCH Super Extra Bonus Party, Groom and The Dublin Duck Dispensery live at HWCH                 More ... Ian Wright Sat, 13 Sep 2008 12:57:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:168 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/222/Os-Mutantes-Vicar-Street#Comments 0 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=36&ModuleID=728&ArticleID=222 https://www.cluas.com:443/indie-music/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=222&PortalID=0&TabID=36 https://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Home/ID/222/Os-Mutantes-Vicar-Street 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 it takes to fill the floor of Vicar St. 2/3’s of the way so let’s say there were x people there where x ∈N. I’d like to be able to say that the other x-1 people and I that were in attendance witnessed something magical from the reformed Brazilian legends if for no other reason than so I could smugly lord it over people I meet who weren’t there (and that’s a lot of people) however I’m not able to do that.  This was a really sloppy performance which alternated between being occasionally brilliant and rubbish cabaret.  When it was good, which was usually after Sergio Dias (the only of the original 3 core mutants present due to his brother Arnaldo’s illness and Rita Lee just not fancying the idea of a reunion at all) figured out which of the many effects he had built into his guitar he wanted to use and which switch turned it on the results were a fantastic collage of psychedelia, classic rock and lounge music which approached being mind blowingly good. That’s a remarkable feat because ordinarily I hate that sort of muck. These reunion shows that have been happening over the past few years have tended to be severely hit and miss affairs, if a band is newly returning to the live circuit the occasional glitch and lull between songs can be forgiven (hello Slint at Vicar St.) and with practice and more regular gigging the band can reach some approximation of their previous standards (hello Slint at Primavera) but Os Mutantes have been playing gigs for over a year now since they got back together and the level of inconsistency demonstrated at this gig just isn’t good enough, and anyone who paid over 30 quid to see it should feel mighty pissed off. Ian Wright   More ... Ian Wright Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:10:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:222