Arcade Fire and Prawn Sandwiches

I got a ticket to the match on saturday. Ireland versus England. History and all that! Have to say i really enjoyed it. There was a great atmosphere inside the ground and it was amazing to see Ireland beat England at a sport they really care about! We have beaten them before in Football and Rugby, but never to my recollection anyway, by such a convincing margain. We completely out classed them, and looked superior at nearly every facet of the game.
I generally don't have much interest in Rugby. Having gone to a Rugby school, you can go in one of two directions, love it or hate it. I took the second, and paid no attention to it for my formative years. This was re-doubled by the fact that my brother was good at the sport and every coach in the school figured that i was an undiscovered talent! I remember being pinned against the wall by one teacher, who was gently requesting that I give rugby a go. I did for a few weeks, but it was never for me.
My opinions on the sport have long since mellowed, but i don't generally watch it on tv, or pay that much attention to it.
My Dad offered me a ticket for the French match and I resisted, on the basis that there must be someone more deserving of the ticket. I'm sure there was, but my sister went instead, who doesn't even really know the rules of the game. My Dad offered again for the England, after someone else had cancelled on him, the day before. I didn't refuse the second time!
I am one of the very many people that didn't get tickets for Arcade Fire's incredibly expensive (thanks MCD!) gig in the Olympia. I didn't log on till five minutes past nine, and it was sold out by then. I'm a fan of Arcade Fire, but would never feel that i'm entitled to a ticket for it, just because i am. Why isn't it the same for sports? Why do people feel entitled to the tickets, even though they're not prepared to pay huge sums for them? Same as Roy Keane's complaining about the corporate whores with their prawn sandwiches. Doesn't mean he'll resist his 60 grand a week pay cheque. People that support sports teams feel linked to that team in a strange way, and therefore feel entitled to something from that team. In reality this isn't the case. Its just another bunch of entertainers playing a venue. Ok, i'm just justifying going to a match where loads of people 'woulda given their right arm to go to', but i do have a point, somewhere!

Fionn Regan and Irish Music

I have eventually just purchased the Fionn Regan album, after much consideration for the last couple of months on the topic. I'm not sure why I hesitated to the degree that i did! I really liked what i heard of him, but admitedly i didn't hear it where i normally hear new music. Ian Dempsey played it on his morning show on Today FM. I listen sometimes, in the way you watch morning tv on a saturday, in a blind stare, not really taking in anything that happens, letting it wash over you.
He described him as a new Irish artist, and i guess i reacted with as much reluctance as i always do to those words! I generally assume that they're gong to be crap, and the only reason they're on the radio is that they're Irish. This clearly wasn't the case with Fionn.
One of my friends recently asked the question, what i would have thought if he had come from Idaho, would he be cooler then? I've written before on the variety of folk style music i like, with Micah P Hinson and M Ward being two of my favourite albums from last year, so why was i hesitating with Fionn? He's also on Domino records, the home of many of my favourites.
I also noticed something on reading various blogs on music, is people's reactions to Snow Patrol, Damien Rice etc. People hate them so much, much more than their bland inofensive music would generally dictate. You have to ask the question, would these people generate this type of reaction if they weren't Irish? Do i secretly dislike or mistrust music simply because it is Irish? Maybe.
I could argue that its just fear of hype. Generally anything even half way decent that is Irish, is hyped beyond all recognition. Bands like Aslan continue to amaze me by how everyone gets so excited over them. They have played the point depot in the past, and I couldn't name one of their songs.
The list of Irish bands i like is very short, but generally if i do like them, they've a fond place in my heart. From my past i did enjoy Rollerskate Skinny, An Emotional Fish, even Something Happens had their moments. Modern day bands include the Redneck Maniffesto and the Jimmy Cake, but i don't own an album by either of those last two bands.
Good luck to Fionn in the Choice Music awards, and done with my prejudice! I need an open mind from now on...

100 Bullets

100 Bullets, First shot, Last call.
I've had a quiet week, mostly due to the re-emergence of the champions league, which generally means the closing of my social life!
One thing i did read was the First graphic novel in the 100 Bullets series. I'd heard about them for a long time, and was always interested in them, having read and enjoyed some of writer Brian Azzarello's early work.
The first story tells the tale of a young woman leaving jail to start her life once again. While in jail, her husband and son were killed in a supposed drive by shooting. She has long since decided in her own head, that she is responsible for these deaths, as retribution from God for her earlier life, and is determined to 'go straight'. The mysterious Agent Graves meets her and offers her a suitcase containing a gun, 100 untraceable bullets and evidence of who really shot her husband and son.
The stories deal with vengence in its purest sense. What would you do to someone who has hurt you, if you knew that there would be no retribution against you, for your efforts. While they don't delve too deeply into the psyche of the characters, they do create an interesting world and set of dilemmas for the characters to deal with.
The art of Eduardo Risso is perfect for the series, and is reminiscet of Sean Philip's Hellblazer's work. Largely monotone, with strong blocks of colour throughout. Each panel is a delight, with huge attention to detail in backgrounds and street scenes.
I'm hooked anyway! The best crime comic book i've read since stray bullets, and not far off being as good. I'm off to e-bay to see how i get the whole series.

Gig Guide

Gig Guide: Not that many new ones on the list really. Willy Mason will be good to see, but that's months away!
Think i'll make it to Kirsten, Scott Mathews, Peter, Bjorn and John, Fionn Regan (been meaning to see him for months now!), Low and Willy Mason.

There's a few interesting sounding things on in crawdaddy, but i'm not vouching for anyone i don't know! Still, lots of delights ahead!

25/2/07 Field Music - Whelans - Sunday
27/2/07 The Holdsteadys - TBMC - Tuesday

5/6/3/07 Arcade Fire Olympia - Sunday/ Monday -------.
12//307 Kirsten Hersh TBMC - Monday *
25/3/07 Cathal Coughlan Sugar Club - Sun
12/4/07 Scott Mathews - Village Thurs
14/4/07 Joanna Newsome - Olympia - Sat --- Sold out
14/4/07 Peter, Bjorn and John - Tripod - Sat
19/4/07 Fionn Regan - Whelans - Thurs
20/4/07 Fionn Regan - Crawdaddy - Friday
21/4/07 Cansei De Ser Sexy- Ambass - Sat
24/4/07 Cold War Kids - Whelans - Tues
9/5/07 Low - Village - Wed
26/5/07 Willy Mason - TBMC - Sat

Champions League

Champions league is back. I'm using this as a way to teach myself never to bet on football, as its a mugs game. Impossible to predict.

EUROPE
Lille 1 v Man Utd 1 - Lille are a very fluid team, with some good players. I think they'll give Man united a fair run for it. United are probably playing to well to be beaten over two legs though! First to score, as i can only name about two of their players, and both are in midfield, i'll go for .... Larsson
Celtic 2 v AC Milan 1 - A big win for Celtic! maybe... Milan are a bit of a mess at the moment, they seem to be getting it together slightly, but Ronaldo can't play for them in the Champions league, so.... i think i'm going to go for Celtic to be roared home. First to score... Craig Beattie
PSV Eindhoven 2 v Arsenal 1 PSV should be good at home. Thought they looked good against liverpool earlier, but got shocked by an early goal. Who knows... First to score ... Kone
Real Madrid 2 v Bayern Munich 1 Real Madrid are mid slump. Bayern aren't much better. I'm going for the home team! First to score. Ruud.
Barcelona 2 v Liverpool 0 Head versus heart time. I'd have to go with Barca as they're just so much stronger on paper. I'd say liverpool will play deep, but Barca have too much invention around goal, they should break through. Maybe Bellamy will be as deadly on the break as he is on the golf course! chance of that.... First to score. Ronaldinho.
FC Porto 1 v Chelsea 2 Chelsea have Terry back and Porto are no great shakes anymore. First to score Drogba.
Inter Milan 1 v Valencia 0- Inter are trotting along in the italian league, but is that because they have no real competition at the moment? Possibly. First to score. Adriano.
Roma 1 v Lyon 0 - Lyon are dropping points all over the place at the moment. Roma are good at home. First to score. Totti.

Micah P Hinson

Micah P Hinson in Crawdaddy.
Well, he wasn't what i expected. I'd only heard the albums, with his rich deep voice, and imagined with the person connected to it would be! For some reason, possibly my lack of creativity, i'd come up with someone who looked like Mark Kozeleck, Tall, dark and brooding, with rock star hair. This wasn't the case!
He's small and squeaky and reminded me a lot of Vic Chesnut, although obviously upright! He was raised half as a hillbilly, as he says himself, which comes through straight away. If we were playing on stereotypes in movies, he'd be the son of the guy who owns the services station that your car broke down five miles outside of! Small, squeaky and almost rodent like, although his sense of humour comes through from the start! He attacks anyone he can, the strokes (my new e.p is four songs, 20 minutes long, only slightly shorter than the strokes first one) the libertines (i don't trash my rooms back stage, i like to save my money, for hand jobs later), non english speaking gigs (i asked the people from napoli if they were called Napoleans, they didn't like that!) etc.
Musically he has a great voice and is excellent on the guitar. My only complaint was the lack of a back up band, he had one guy with him who moved between drums and slide guitar with ease, but soetimes the set missed a fuller sound. Travelling from texas to play gigs in venues the size of crawdaddy, it may not be economical!
He was warm and humourous throughout, and even if you wouldn't like him for one of your friends, its an interesting insight into his world! Worth checking out if he's ever in town....

Science of Sleep

Daily Mail 1/5
Daily Telegraph 4/5
Independent 2/5
The Guardian 4/5
The Times 3/5
The Sun 2.5/5
The Mirror 4/5
Financial Times 2/5
A good indication of how the Science of Sleep is splitting the critics right down the middle! its the second feature film from Michael Gondry, and has almost as much heart and beauty as his first 'eternal sunshine of the spotless mind'.
I was wary of his new effort, as it was almost impossible to do better than his first in my mind. Its a perfect 'break up' movie, and captures that traumatic time with great realism even withint the strange world he creates and sees it for what it is. The Hollywood ending does remove some of the charm, but its one of the few films i've sat in meeting house square in the rain to watch. Guess that makes me a big girl!
His new movie treads similar territory with a disfunctional love affair. It is seen through the eyes of a young man who's mother describes as 'always having difficulty defining dream from reality'. This allows Gondry an open pallet to create a complex world that makes sense within itself. It relies heavily on stop motion animation, another thing that has never lost its charm, and is clearly owes a debt to jan svankmajer. The best parts of the movie are in the dreams themselves, where no rules of normal world confine and Gondry's imagination can run wild.
Go see it. It'll give you the warm fuzzies, if you have half a heart at all. Honest!
4/5

American Buffalo

American Buffalo at the Gate.
I think my only problem with this production is amazingly enough with David Mamet's script! Its a well written piece as ever, and has the usual level of interesting banter between the various players, but it never really moves above it!
It was possibly the only major piece of his work that i was not familiar with, and i had expected quite a bit from it. It has the feel and general structure of Glengarry Glenross, but lacks a few of the twists that draw the viewer into the story, as they try to peice together what really happened.
In fact, there is very little plot at all to the piece. A robbery that never happens is the jist of the story, but i guess that isn't as important as to why it never happens and the dynamics between the characters involved.
The three main actors are all worthwhile, and the gate has done its usual trick of drawing in a big name, in this case, our own Aiden Gillen (star of Queer as folk and starting to make a name for himself in the states) is the main draw.
The set is a convincing version of a curiosity shop from the mid 70's, other than a few pieces that don't look quite old enough!
It is certainly an entertaining piece, and a worthwhile way to spend an afternoon or night, just lacks some depth.
3/5

Blackbird

Blackbird. - An interesting tale that dances the line between love and abuse of a minor, which had us talking about topics and plot upon leaving the theatre. Unfortunately, none of us could say that we really enjoyed the play. It was flawed in many aspects, Stephen Brennan had the near impossible talk of making a paedophile seem likable and making it seem like it was more than abuse. He did not achieve either of those things, and didn't give the viewer any discernable reason for why the young girl was captivated by him.
Similar to Fausten (the Dogma movie and play that was recently produced in the Gate Theatre), the abuse was carried out a long time in the past, and we are not directly asked to go through any of these experiences. It lacks the impact of Fausten and also the humour.
The world of theatre is throwing up a lot of similar discussions on child abuse, with Fausten (mentioned above) and Doubt in the abbey. It does seem to be a hot topic, but personally feel it generally makes for a difficult night at the theatre.
The play only has two actors, and does not move even remotely from its topic at hand. It tries to keep the viewer on an emotional high, which is near impossible for a play of two hours. It needed some break from the relentless revelations and the story is slowly revealed to the audience.
The play is not without its positives, a stunning set, and the lead female's role was quite powerful. Maybe it was just one to many on a similar theme.
3/5

65 Days Of Static

Nearly missed history Last night! Glad San Marino didn't get the draw, as i'd be disgusted if I'd missed it!
65 days of static played crawdaddy last night, with back up from Parhelia and both were pretty cool actually.
Parhelia had the grumpy guy from sound cellar (Dublin based rocker record shop) on bass. In the shop, he will not smile regardless of situation, but on stage, he just couldn't stop! Beaming from ear to ear. They are a four piece, two guitars, bass and drums, no vocals being the theme for the evening. Nicely layered music, with a definite heavy rock rock vibe.
65 days of static are another Sheffield, but judging on the amount of albums they have out, they've been there for a while before their better known relations! They sound quite like Mogwai, but with heavy use of samples, drum machines in places and piano. They seem nice lads also, and had a bit of humour to them.
There was moshing at the gig (is moshing back? seems to be) but I didn't get involved. Nearly deaf after it! At one point had my fingers in my ears, looked up and all those beside it had their fingers in their ears too! I guess they're not suited to so small a venue!
Gig season contines...

The Decemberists

The back up band The Crayons (are they really the first to use that name?), are a three piece from Dublin, to the best of my knowledge. An interesting group with a bit more umph than your average support act! I was also impressed by how many times the lead singer used the word 'deadly'. 'You're a deadly crowd' and 'This is deadly'. Its a word that has slowly disappeared in recent years, but I think that through work by people like the lead singer of the Crayons, it'll be back in regular usage in no time at all!

The Decemberists took the stage a little after 9, and were much better than I expected! The front man, Colin Molloy, (good Irish name, eh) really knows how to work a crowd. Split the crowd into two halves, claiming there was a pit of lava and snakes down the centre of the room. He then had each half sing the chorus..... and then would return to the other side and say 'the other half were louder', half way through the concert he stopped the music for half time calenetics! He also had everyone down on the ground, and up pogo-ing. Its all silly fun, and I enjoyed it. Sometimes its nice to be treated like a nine year old in p.e. class! They were good musically as well!

65 days of static on Wednesday. Missing football for it, so it had better be good! Gig season continues...

Elvis has left the building

Just had to put this in, as its kind of fascinating. He was the first support at the Clap your hands gig last night, liked his music, and some good lyrics. Fun instruments too, accordians, double bass etc. Worth checking out.

I'm sure marketing execs would love him. He's got a very odd back story...
from wickipedia.com

"Elvis Perkins (born 1975 ) is a folk-rock singer He is the son of actor Anthony Perkins and photographer Berry Berenson. He was raised in Los Angeles and New York City.
Perkins' melancholy songs reflect the personal tragedy he's experienced over the years. His father died of AIDS in 1992. His mother, photographer was on board a flight that was flown into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.His debut album, Ash Wednesday, a chronologically sequenced album of songs written before and after his mother's death, has been a work in progress since 2002. Its expected for release in February 2007 by XL Recordings with a lead single called "All The Night Without Love.........."

Satan ... said dance...

It was all a bit surprising actually! Before the gig there was a tingle in the air. I wasn't sure if it was just me, but i certainly felt it. Anticipationi! Excitement. Its been ages since i've gone to a gig like that, but for some reason, i had it last night!
Clap your hands, say yeah, were playing the Tripod, the newly renovated Red box, in the pod. Newly renovated as in they put in a bar, and a balcony, and maybe cleaned it up a bit! The floor was still sticky as i was leaving last night, some things don't change!
The Claps started with a country version of one of their new songs, and the crowd were very laid back! They got absolutely no reaction to their new stuff at all, which was kinda funny. I suppose no one has the new album yet! It is possibly one of those difficult second albums you hear so much about. Its good without ever reaching great. There's a few great songs on it, Satan said dance, and Some loud thunder (which is slightly messed up by an effect on the vocal), but it lacks a couple of real clinchers to make it as good as their previous effort.
About four songs from the end, the started playing a few of the really good ones from the old album, and the place erupted! Pogo dancing, crowd surfing.... it was odd in the extreme. My friend there said he hadn't seen the like since 'Alice in Chains' at the SFX waaaaaaaay back (93 ish).
I got a flying elbow in the back of the head, got beer spilled on me, got stood on a hundred times.... sigh. Just like the good old days! Still feel a bit bouncy just thinking about it. Some kinds you just gotta dance (when the dark lord, satan directs it!).
Actually think they stopped early because of how rowdy the crowd was! they only played an hour, but I can't complain as we had two really good supports.
Cold war kids - Lead singer is very Greg Dulli, if he was in the O.C. Clean cut, amazing voice. Think he'll do well, if he drops the rest of his band, who are ugly! Not that interesting musically though.
Elvis Perkins - My kinda stuff really. Laid back with interesting lyrics. Double bass, some horns, some accordions etc. He was pretty normal though, not sure what I expected, but he wasn't it! Still good though.
Decemberists on Saturday. Gig season continues... hope they're as good!