It’s more of a mini-festival than simply a gig at the Half Moon tonight, courtesy of the launch of Sofa Records’ excellent new compilation “Music For People With Long Ears.” The doors are at 9 and the music continues until 2AM with all the expected frantic breaking down and setting up of equipment that this scenario suggests, with three bands on the main stage and two in the smaller ‘Green Room’ along the corridor.
Up first on the main stage, DAE KIM are celebrating the release of their album “Matador” on Sofa. As yet, this writer’s not heard it (hint, hint), but on this showing they have improved considerably since your reviewer caught them just over a year back when they were opening for The House Of Love at a then barely half-full Cyprus Avenue across town.
Led by former Ten Speed Racer drummer Terry Cullen (who’s now upfront on guitar and vocals), DK are now beginning to weave a very agreeable web of sound. Their new drummer has added a new dimension and her repetitively simple Mo Tucker/ Klaus Dinger approach of playing the same beat on virtually every song allows the band to swerve from Ride-style FX ethereality to Nirvana-ish heaviosity in fine style. Terry’s gruff voice blends seamlessly with Katie O’Sullivan’s second vocal and the occasional use of a loudhailer gives them an additional edge. Cullen also gets my vote for appearing resplendent in a rather fine T-shirt bearing the inscription ‘New York Fucking City.’ Chap.
Scene set effectively, then, and the perfect opportunity for STANLEY SUPER 800 to showcase some new material from their eagerly-anticipated second album. From the off it’s clear they’re not about to squander it either, as they open with a corking version of EP highlight “It’s All Over Now”: quite possibly the most exhilarating song about impending suicide you’re liable to hear and one of the best singles your reviewer has heard in recent years. They follow it up with the playful and equally anthemic “Summer In The City” (with Tosh again showing how effective a spare loudhailer can be) and dig deeply into the trance-y groove of “Voices In The Music”.
Gradually, they ease us into the new tunes as we go along. One they’ve been toying with for a while finds Stan and Flor swapping guitar and bass and sliding into sinewy, Can-style rhythmic logic, while a second (no titles are divulged as yet) sounds equally promising, built around Dave and Flor’s heavy, interlocking groove. These get an encouraging response, but the euphoria is reserved for the home strait featuring a goofily glorious “Mountain Climbing” and a triumphant “Rolled Up In Gold” played at breakneck speed and with some panache. All in all it’s a great set with the boys leaning into the songs and sounding better than ever. Roll on album number two.
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The impending curfew is looming large as Limerick’s giveamanakick finally take the stage around 1.30AM, but the tumultuous thunder Stephen Ryan and Keith Lawler kicked up on their recent second album “We Are The Way Forward” is anything but neutered as this hungry duo proceed to scour the sleep from our eyes and beat the living Bejaysus out of their taut and wired set.
As they open with a truly volcanic “Bobby Dazzler”, you’re left wondering how the soddin’ hell two geezers with simply one guitar, a Marshall stack, a medium-sized drum kit (and the odd theremin) can possibly make such a scabrous racket. The White Stripes they most definitely are not, and as they career through the dangerous sonic chicanes of their set, the only possible response is to succumb wholeheartedly to their frenetic, Fugazi-bothering hailstorm. Songs fly past at an alarming rate and though W&H are forced to leave slightly early to make a different curfew (this one involving getting our car from the car park before time) they’ve already made magnificent pulp of tracks like a wicked “Say ‘No’ To Sports.”
Of course, we haven’t even mentioned either BETAMAX FORMAT or DRY COUNTY yet, though suffice it to say the former featured an elfin livewire singer, a nice line in vocoder abuse and some quirkily offbeat electro-punk while a lengthy conversation your reviewer got into ensured he shamefully missed most of Dry County’s set. Both, however, did enough to suggest this writer would be coming back when he’s done a modicum more research and boned up further on yet another cool Irish label making their presence felt in the marketplace.
www.sofarecords.ie
www.stanleysuper800.com
www.givemanakick.com
www.outonalimbrecords.com
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