Their Music

I really enjoyed this one. The lead singer, who seems like a warm and friendly fellow, has a sweet and husky tenor voice full of character. It works really well with their emotional and catchy indie-pop ballads. Naturally the older songs that I knew best were my favourite bits, but even the newer material came […]

A strange experience for me, to see a room full of people who were VERY into Flogging Molly’s Irish punk-pop-folk-rock, while it didn’t really click with me at all. I had the feeling lead singer Dave King and I were the only two Irish people in the room, but there were definitely lots of fans […]

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost five years since I saw Lisa Hannigan playing in Lausanne. That gig was in a much smaller, more intimate venue, which is one reason I enjoyed it more than last night’s Antigel date in Geneva. But I think it was also because I have been finding it […]

Fùgù Mango saved my evening. The most remarkable thing about the JVAL Openair festival is its setting. The stage is set up in the front yard of a large farmhouse in the foothills of the Jura, entirely surrounded by vineyards that roll down to the shores of Lake Geneva, with the Alps looming up on […]

We left the kids with Nadine’s parents in Leeds last Saturday night and took the train up to Newcastle where we met up with David (of Mulled fame) to catch Ben Folds in concert. I had seen him live twice previously and was blown away each time. Both occasions were before I started writing about […]

(Does this post verge on me bragging about my kids having excellent taste in music? Yes it does. Is that so wrong? Probably. Do I care? No!) Here’s a playlist to listen to while you’re reading this. We have music playing in the house constantly. Sometimes we just let the player (a now slightly dated […]

This Libertines performance was raucous (but not as raucous as I expected), messy (but not as messy as I expected)  and a bit of a shambles at times (but not as shambolic as I expected).  That said, every now and then – and just often enough to hold my interest – their magical melodies shone […]

Fribourg’s Nouveau Monde is a very cool venue. The building is the town’s old railway station, with the bar in the main hall and the music venue in one of the wings. The room is a nice size, fitting only a few hundred people. There was a decent crowd for Shearwater, but it was far […]

Three gigs in just over a week: I’m a lucky man! Having seen The Tallest Man on Earth in the city centre the night before, last night’s Lynched concert involved a trek out to the commune of Bernex where the local Catholic church was the venue. (Antigel makes a virtue of using unusual venues throughout […]

I had seen Kristian Matsson live twice before, both times in Amsterdam and both times solo. This full band gig was part of the wonderful and eclectic Antigel festival and took place in Geneva’s recently refurbished Alhambra. The venue is lovely: great acoustics and comfortable seats, although the lines of sight aren’t great from the […]

This was a special gig. Tété is a French musician, of Senegalese extraction, who has had a few hits in French-speaking countries with his clever and catchy acoustic pop songs. He has four or five albums under his belt and is currently working on a new one. As a means of trying out some ideas […]

John Spillane has, on the strength of this one concert, become one of my favourite songwriters. Before last Saturday I was familiar with him mostly by name and reputation, with Christy Moore’s very nice version of Magic Nights In The Lobby Bar being the only song of his that I could name. I had a […]

(I usually try to get these little reviews published in the days immediately following a gig but last week was a busy one. Got to keep up the habit though!) This was not an easy gig to sit through. I had fallen out of touch with Sufjan Stevens’ music over the past few years, but […]

This was, I think, the fourth time I’ve seen Andrew Bird play live. Every performance has been amazing, but this was the best. He was totally in the zone, giving it everything and playing with a precision that I think was missing when I last saw him, in Amsterdam in 2011. (His head may have […]

It’s just under three years since I first saw Of Monsters and Men in concert, a gig that I enjoyed hugely. They had six musicians on stage for that gig in Amsterdam, so they must be doing okay for themselves given that they were up to nine for this tour (including a couple of brass […]

Poking through a drawer at home recently I stumbled upon a minidisc containing a radio documentary that I produced in 1997 about the legendary Irish folk singer Christy Moore. The documentary – titled Welcome to the Cabaret – and a written report about it together formed the thesis that I had to submit for my […]

James Taylor has a reputation for being one of the music industry’s genuinely nice guys. He’s been around since the late sixties (signed by the Beatles to their Apple label in 1968) and is most famous for singing songs that he wrote more than forty years ago, so he could easily be a bit tired […]

I’d been waiting for an opportunity to catch The Decemberists live for almost ten years now. I thought maybe we’d missed the boat since leaving Amsterdam, so when I saw they’d be passing through Zurich on the current tour I jumped at the chance. They were well worth the wait! It was the second last […]

A visit to Ireland last weekend meant that I missed out on Luka Bloom’s return visit to Geneva; but it also meant that I had a chance to catch his big brother in concert in Dublin. Christy Moore is nothing less than a – perhaps the – living legend of Irish folk music. At his gig […]

When I was in my teens I listened to a lot of radio. I was forever entering competitions, responding to questions and generally doing anything I could to be “on” the radio. I loved hearing my name called out for whatever reason, and did end up speaking – or even singing – on air now […]

I had wanted to see Beirut live for a long time and was really looking forward to this one. While they tend to get mentioned in the same breath as other indie-folk-rock bands like Fleet Foxes or Bon Iver, their sound is quite unique. Brass instruments are to the fore, with trombone and a pair […]

The wettest July ever around these parts apparently, so I was reasonably lucky to experience probably the only two rain-free evenings at Paléo 2014. I have the impression that, despite the rain and mud, it was a pretty good Paléo. I certainly enjoyed my two visits, on Thursday and Sunday, and Nadine heard some good […]

The Antigel festival marks the start of the cultural year in Geneva, bringing international acts of all kinds to perform in unusual venues around the canton. My friend Chantal suggested a trip out to a surprisingly pretty little church in the suburb of Chêne-Bougeries to see Keaton Henson. He’s a folkie singer-songwriter from England described […]

Damn you Google and your excellent free products! I really, really wanted to pay somebody to store a back-up of our music collection online and make it available on a web-based player. The convenience and reassurance offered by such a service was/is something worth paying for. But in the end it’s Google Music that has […]

Attending GLAS events in Geneva is often like heading home to Ireland for an evening without any need for Aer Lingus (and their stupidly early morning return flight); and last night was one of those occasions. Tale of the Gael is a kind of collective of musicians whose centre of gravity is Catherine Rhatigan and […]

I have a feeling this won’t go down as one of the better Paléo years. I haven’t been reading reviews in the local press, but if the two nights I was there for are anything to go by, the musical highlights were few and far between. Of course Paléo is about a whole lot more […]

So now I understand. For years friends whose musical guidance I regard highly would rave about Bruce Springsteen, but I never really got it. Sure, I could hum along to Born To Run and have been known to perform The River in bars now and again. But I couldn’t really see what inspired the passion […]

I was lucky enough to be able to attend another GLAS concert in Geneva last week. This time Denis McClean moved heaven and earth to bring Maria Doyle Kennedy to town for what was another memorable night in the Aula at the Collège des Coudriers. There’s something about the setting that seems to bring the […]

Unfortunately we had to leave this gig midway through the main attraction. When you tell the babysitter you’ll be back by 11:00 it’s not good form to turn up an hour later on a school night. Still, it was very lovely to be out at a gig with Nadine again – an irregular occurrence these […]

From start to finish this was a thoroughly enjoyable evening of songs and music that left me feeling supremely relaxed, nostalgic for home and for my childhood, and just a little bit Christmassy. Moya Brennan, the lead singer of Clannad, they of the haunting harmonies and Celtic melodies, led her band in a beautifully balanced […]

My student days at DCU influenced my own music activities in two major ways. Firstly there were the regular gigs in the student union bar, singing Britpop, Beatles and Christy Moore to crowds of drunken students. I cut my live teeth during those years and have some hazy memories of great nights. But the other […]

It’s not all that often that we have the chance to see top Irish entertainers live in Geneva. When we do it’s usually thanks to the efforts of Denis McClean and the Geneva Literary Aid Society. Last night’s Luka Bloom gig raised more than 6,000 CHF for the Edith Wilkins Foundation, a charity that cares […]

A work-related visit to Amsterdam (for IBC 2012) gave me an opportunity to catch a gig in the Melkweg. Even though it was officially sold out, I had a feeling I’d be able to pick up a ticket outside the venue. Sure enough, I met a very nice man who sold me his spare ticket […]

I’ve been intending to write a post about the Paléo Festival, given that gig reviews have made up a large portion of my posts in the past. Paléo is a six day music and arts festival that takes place in the town of Nyon, mid-way between Geneva and Lausanne. It’s a really nice festival: great […]

It’s been more than eight months since I posted a gig review here. For that I can mostly blame moving from Amsterdam to Geneva (fewer gigs on tap) and becoming a father (fewer opportunities to go out). So I was really pleased to be able to go to see Lisa Hannigan in Lausanne this week, […]

The Kleine Zaal at the Paradiso was packed to capacity for last night’s gig by these not-at-all scruffy young chaps from Reading. The lead singer is remarkably well-spoken: I could imagine him leading a delegation from the UK Foreign Office to the United Nations. He sings well too, a little bit Bowie, a little bit […]

Wow, what a gig! Ryan Adams played for about two and half hours last night in the Concertgebouw, an unusual venue for a rock gig, but perfect for this acoustic set. Just him, his guitar (sometimes piano) and a bunch of songs that drew heavily on the Heartbreaker album; and not too much from his […]

The hottest ticket in town tonight were the youngsters from Sheffield who were singing down the road at a packed-to-the-rafters Paradiso. I didn’t manage to get a ticket but it worked out rather well in the end as I got to see the Denver-based DeVotchKa at the Melkweg instead. I would have been sorry to […]

My job required me to fly to be in Turkey this week meaning that I missed out on going to see Mercury Rev at the Paradiso. I passed the tickets on to my friends Christina and Mirko who kindly wrote the report below. (My first guest post – could this be the start of my […]

It wasn’t so much the tallest man on earth as the highest man on earth this evening at the Paradiso. It seems Christian Matson made the most of his day in Amsterdam before performing to a packed Grote Zaal. Fortunately it didn’t seem to affect the quality of the musical performance adversely; he was certainly […]

I was keen not to miss out on an opportunity to see Broken Records again, particularly in the cosier confines of Bitterzoet. The last time they played Amsterdam was also a “double header” with Freelance Whales in the Melkweg. On that occasion more of the crowd had come to see the whiny pop of Freelance […]

Alela Diane has a special voice – plaintive and strong, but sweet and gentle too. I quite like her album To Be Still, the only one with which I was familiar before last night’s gig. I was expecting lots of banjo and steel guitar, over acoustic fingerpicking and haunting melodies. What I got was Wild […]

People’s Place is a private bar and event venue on the ground floor of the Tommy Hilfiger HQ building near Leidseplein. The folks at the Paradiso have started using it as an additional room for touring acts, but it’s not really a satisfactory space. A very wide column takes out the view for a significant […]

It was all about effects this evening. Between the very impressive one-woman-band Little Scream in support (more below) and the three-man Timber Timbre, the stage was awash with effects pedals of all sorts. I hadn’t been so impressed with Timber Timbre’s album but thought I might enjoy the music more if I heard it performed […]

Motel Mozaïque is a multi-venue festival that brings a reasonably impressive line-up of bands to Rotterdam each year. We didn’t catch Lykke Li, Belle and Sebastian, The Coral, The Bees, or any of the various up-and-coming acts that played across the two days. We did, however, see Josh Ritter (with his Royal City Band) and […]

There was a full house at Bitterzoet for what was apparently Alexi Murdoch’s first headlining gig in Europe. He seemed genuinely surprised to see so many people there and he also seemed like a good guy. Sadly, I found most of the music to be just a bit tedious. The songs all tend to start […]

Following last week’s top notch Iron and Wine gig in the same venue, this was another case of an artist sometimes noted for his more gentle, acoustic-based songs whipping up a full-band musical storm. I’ve seen Conor Oberst live once before, but it was an altogether more countrified experience when he was touring his eponymous […]

In my mind I suppose I was expecting a bearded folkster singing gentle songs with his acoustic guitar; what we got was eight brilliant musicians performing and reworking familiar songs in a style that veered between swampy folk, classic rock, African pop and jazzy jamming. Sam Beam led his band like a man who had […]

This double-header took place in my favourite room for live music in Amsterdam, the Oude Zaal in the Melkweg. Both bands played for more than an hour and it seemed that there were more people there specifically to see Freelance Whales than Broken Records. This is a pity as, for me at least, the latter […]

This gig was recommended by my American buddy Brad, who runs the Live Music Meetup in Amsterdam. He has admitted to having “concert stalked” this band back in the States and was pretty excited to find out that they’re playing every Monday night in February in the small room at the Paradiso. Interesting tactic. It […]

This year we finally made it to the Eurosonic Noorderslag Festival in Groningen having wanted to attend for many years. It brings together more than 300 up-and-coming acts from around Europe, performing in 30 venues around a friendly university town in the far north of the Netherlands. It’s mainly aimed at industry types, with hundreds […]

You can’t really go wrong with the unplugged format. If (and I suppose that can be a big if) the songs are strong enough, any professional band should be able to pull off an entertaining set with just a couple of acoustic guitars, a bass and a sprinkling of piano. And yet I couldn’t help […]

I saw Suzanne Vega in Paris around 2000 or 2001 and I recall being really impressed by her performance. Ten years later the set list was largely the same, as was the format – Vega on acoustic guitar accompanied by an electric guitarist (Gerry Leonard I think). It’s hard to tell after so many years, […]

About an hour after the gig we were having a few Belgian beers outside De Zotte, a bar just around the corner from the Melkweg, when a buddy and I got chatting to a couple of American guys. One of them was the lead singer of The Suckers, the band that had supported Yeasayer earlier […]

I knew that Neil Hannon was talented and could write a catchy pop tune without breaking a sweat. What I didn’t realise is just how entertaining he is as a live performer. During last night’s “An Evening with the Divine Comedy”, which was essentially a one-man cabaret, he delivered almost two hours of witty, moving, […]

Josh Ritter is such a generous and warm performer. This was my third time seeing him live and, yet again, it was an uplifting experience. It’s rare to see a musician that so clearly loves doing what he does and lets it show unashamedly. What’s more, he’s a brilliant lyricist who has crafted some really […]

The first time I saw Modest Mouse, also at the Melkweg, in September 2007, I was blown away. They were touring the We were dead… album, which is packed full of catchy songs. They also played lots of songs from the Good News… album, again plenty to sing along to. Even allowing for the fact […]

Groot-muziek! Groot-muziek indeed. Beautiful guitar-playing, a voice full of emotion, lyrics that successfully walk the line between obscure imagery and stories you can relate to, and a warm, charismatic performer. What’s not to like? I love the Oude Zaal in the Melkweg and this was the first time I’ve seen a solo artist headlining there. […]

On oft-used cliche in sporting circles is that football is “a game of two halves”. Well last night in the Paradiso was more like an American football match: a game of four quarters. I’ll start with the final quarter when the Eels really turned up the heat with a performance that was highly energetic, highly […]

I’m not sure whether James Mercer and Brian Burton (a.k.a. the lead singer of The Shins and DJ Danger Mouse, a.k.a. Broken Bells) originally planned to perform the material from their album live. Seemingly they’ve been working in the studio together since 2008 and, to me at least, the album sounds like one that was […]

I think if I had been a long time fan of Nada Surf this would have jumped right into my top ten gigs of all time list. In fact I’ve only recently bought one of their albums, Lucky, and hadn’t really been able to get into it. After the gig I went straight home and […]

A bunch of very talented musicians play the B-side of Abbey Road live in the studio itself. As far as I know the Beatles never did this themselves as they had long given up playing live by then (bar the odd session on the roof). If you’re a Beatles fan this really is a joy […]

My ears were bleeding by the end of this – a very loud gig in the intimate surroundings of the Oude Zaal at the Melkweg. Given my tendency to be into more folky stuff, perhaps my threshold isn’t very high, but with two lead guitars, Craig Finn on rhythm from time to time, and the […]

It’s on nights like this that I miss going to gigs in Ireland. The Dutch are a friendly, fun-loving nation, but sometimes they seem a bit dry when it comes to live music. It’s fair to say that neither the venue itself nor the fact that it was a seated gig helped matters, but the […]

I went to this gig not really knowing the music in advance. The impression I got from putting a few of their albums on Spotify in the background beforehand was that the songs were kind of repetitive, with choruses repeated over and over again. I think this works well sometimes – I did/do like Walking […]

Villagers could end up becoming everyone’s new favourite band. But I think first they (or he, as they’re really the musical framework around one Conor O’Brien) need to work out just what kind of band they are. I heard echoes of Conor Oberst, Bell x1, Mumford & Sons, Damien Rice, early Radiohead (thanks Nadine), Scott […]

I really wanted to enjoy this gig, and I thought I would enjoy it, but I didn’t. Oh well. Beach House, from Baltimore, are described as playing “dream pop and indie rock”, but to me that just translated into an evening of long monotonous songs that didn’t really go anywhere or do anything. A little […]

I had never heard of Angus and Julia Stone before my friend and colleague Christina invited me to use a spare ticket she had for this gig. A quick listen on MySpace didn’t put me off so I took her up on the offer. They’re a sister and brother duo from Australia – he looks […]

I got the distinct impression that Bret and Jemaine decided to start this tour, their first in over a year according to themselves, with a couple of nights in Amsterdam so they’d have an opportunity to polish their act before hitting bigger venues in Ireland, the UK and the US. It was very entertaining with […]

We were late in discovering that Mumford & Sons were playing in Utrecht last Monday, so we turned up to a sold out show without tickets. Fortunately we picked up a pair of tickets at face value (€15 each) from someone who’s ill friends couldn’t make it. Hurrah! The band was recommended to us by […]

What an enjoyable gig! Tunng delivered a really tight performance in the Melkweg last night with interesting rhythms, hummable melodies and plenty of good humour. There were six people on stage, with up to five voices blending together in harmony at times. The combination of loops and samples with two live percussionists worked really well. […]

Finally some sense! Close to the end of her show in the Oude Zaal at the Melkweg last night Laura Marling explained that she would do two more songs and that would be it. She said that being a regular gig-goer in London she resented the fact that every single gig involved having to call […]

We went to see Tom McRae at the Melkweg last night. I’ve been aware of him for quite a few years but never really got around to listening to any of his music. The gig was reasonably good – and very much enjoyed by the core of dedicated fans up at the front. His five […]

In this era of randomly shuffling through your entire music collection there’s a lot to be said for music selected and playlisted by humans, particularly if that music happens to broadly match your musical tastes. Det Elektriske Barometer is a digital and internet radio station from the Danish national public broadcaster. They play a mix […]

An audio recording of philosopher Alan Watts set to an animation by the South Park guys. Treat life like a piece of music – make sure you sing along or dance while the music is playing; don’t just wait for the end. I think I found this via Reddit, posted on a blog called Penguin […]