The National Lottie

And the award for Gig Of The Year goes to….Can Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon) and Duke Special (Peter Wilson) please stand up. Okay Tom you have a point there. Well the boys can take second prize.

Last night was the hotly anticipated Duke & Divine gig for Amnesty Internationals Small Places Tour and it was pure magic. Everything off-beat and theatrical about Duke combined with Hannon’s quick wit and showmanship. The two friends have electric chemistry together and have recently taken to collaborating in their song writing resulting in Our Love Goes Deeper Than This in 2007.

There was sing-off’s, on-stage arm wrestling, Jedi battles and high-noon sword fights. It put a whole new meaning to “the Battle of The Bands”. The only criticism I can make is that the gig lacked some consistency as the two performers interchanged every other song and each would vacate the stage when they were not involved breaking the momentum somewhat.  But otherwise, it was truly exceptional – they never fail to deliver.

I just got this by way of spam.

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I love spam.

Lisa Hannigan playing in Whelans on 18th August 2008.

SOLD OUT

The Dark Knight

What can I say that has not already been said?

I dragged, Darren and Antny, mind you they followed willingly up to UGC Cineworld (old habits die hard)  after work yesterday to get tickets to the 7.30pm showing of The Knight.  We got in queue to discover that all three showings of the evening were fully booked up.

I was over come with RAGE so much so that I actually kicked Darren. Apologies for that. (Gentle patting motion). What can I say? I have the temper of a 3 year old when I don’t get what I want.

I immediately went into defeatist mode and wanted to go home and soak my miseries in the bottle of Turkish Raki which had been left over from the weekends shenanigans.   But Darren in his ever prevailing optimism suggested The Savoy.

“But I don’t like the Savoy ” I unjustifiably whinged in an effort to distract from my sulkiness, evidentially only highlighting what a massive pain in the arse I can be when things go pear shaped on me. So kicking and screaming and throwing all sorts of things out of the pram, I was pushed towards O’Connell Street and JOY they had tickets to the 7.55 show. We purchased our tickets, which were a lot cheaper than Cineworld and one pint of liquid gold later and we joined the long long outdoor queue for screen 1.

The Bat & I

I was a huge Batman fan from first Michael Keaton stepped into the leather suit in 1989. One of my earliest crushes was on a middle aged man in tight spandex and leather swinging around in a mask. What does that say about me?

Both Batman and Batman Returns are still in my top movies of all time list (there being about 50 in that list). The Third one has been banned in my reality and Batman & Robin is best forgotten even though this means ignoring the lovely Mr. Clooney.

From very early on in the hype I knew Batman Begins was going to be a revival of the crusader I loved and it didn’t disappoint. In fact I watched the damn thing twice in the last two weeks. I  probably need to get out more.

Now for the actual review.

Can I do it justice without seeing it again?  Is next week too late to blog about it?  Okay – here goes.

The gist of the story is that the Bat-team must fight against the forces of corruption as the Mob attempts to secure it’s deathly grip on the city of Gotham. The visual effects are flawless (bar the exploding helicopter that looks as it was drawn in), the camera work and stunts are likewise excellent.   Director Christopher Nolan doesn’t bow to Hollywood and the over all tone of the movie is dark and sorrowful. The movie is (as Darren put it) dialogue heavy. It is a well-wrought drama smothered in heart racing action scenes teasing ooh’s and ahh’s from the full capacity screening.

The true glory of the film however does not lie in it’s script, direction or cinematography but in it’s characters. The characters are interesting and well-developed and are faced with all kinds of obstacles while they’re grappling with inner demons.

Christian Bale is all bad and moody again as billionaire Bruce Wayne/The Caped Crusader.  There are a few role reprisals from Michael Caine (dry and very funny), Morgan Freeman (possibilities for the next bad guy?), Gary Oldman (this guy is such a good actor I forget it’s Big Mo’s brother) and Cillian Murphy(whatever).

Stepping into the limelight is Aaron Eckhart as Gotham’s whiter than white DA District Attorney Harvey Dent and Maggie Gyllenhaal bitch slaps Katie Holmes’ Rachel Dawes into a much finer character.

Heath Ledger attempts to take over the role of the Joker originally and magnificently portrayed by Jack Nicholson in 1989.

And did he do it?

Jack who?

Ledgers joker merely hinted at his former master. Other than that – it was all his. He was sadistic, frightening,  grotesque,  unpredictable and unnervingly funny. The character is a coarse dervish of cackling, lip-smacking, cheek-sucking, magic performing sin and he makes the  villain as scary as possible while teasing laughter from the audience, even if it is a laugh of sweaty unease to appease the character lest he leap from the screen in disapproval and practice his magic tricks on us. As Rolling Stone put it “Ledger’s work is so mesmerizing that he has us believing The Joker could indeed penetrate that fourth wall.“

While the good and the bad wrestle for power, the Joker doesn’t seem care which side he takes as long as he can execute total  destruction and devastation in his mission to unmask Batman.

His sheer brilliance makes his tragic death in January all the more…well tragic. Even before his passing it was evident that Ledgers Joker was going to be the talk of the town.  He didn’t disappoint.

Can I choose between Eckhart and Ledger for best performance.?  …….Okay Legder gets it due to his bed side manner(isms).

Although this is based on a comic-book legend, it’s not a film for little kids. It’s dark and often brutal and even gave me a restless night last night as I dreamed of Heath Ledger in a whole new way.

And in the end – goose pimples and a round of applause.  I give it 4.75 stars.  It looses .25 of a stars as no film can EVER live up to that much hype.

Now excuse me while I book round II and look forward to The X-Files next week.

Our lovely little hamlet of Greystones has witnessed the opening of it’s first theatre aptly named, Greystones Theatre.

While the venue is only 30 seconds (32 seconds to be exact) from our house,last night was our first visit.

Falling in Love

I couldn’t believe it last week when I checked out the site and saw that one of my favourite artists, Juliet Turner would be performing. She is a big name. What was she doing in Gresytones?

My love affair with Juliet began about 8 years ago when I first saw her perform “Dr. Fell” on some British Saturday morning entertainment show. A few days later, after much raving on, a friend bought me her Burn the Blacksuit album (alas I was a very poor student and needed the charity). I know Darren is going to put up as post on both Juliet & the Theatre so I will lead you here for more on those.

Lending Support

I wanted to write a few lines about her supporting act, Gentry Morris.

Juliet has had some pretty good support since I first saw her in the Olympia 7 years ago. Most memorably, I first saw Duke Special, another favourite of mine, open for her sometime in 2001.

But back to Gentry. Despite having a chest infection he belted out the tunes, some of which clearly echoed Juliet’s own style. I didn’t have the foresight to get out my camera early enough and missed to opportunity to get him on tape but I have, for your viewing pleasure, robbed from You-Tube.

This song, The Waltz has made a very swift jump into my songs of the moment list.

Sounding Out

In spite of his illness, this song sounded incredible last night but that maybe due to the amazing acoustics in the Theatre. Whether intentional or not, this venue has the potential to be one of the most sought after musical stages in Ireland. The sound is pristine. Gentry even commented that it was his favourite venue sound wise.

I can imagine Other Voices would sound spectacular in there.

Ooh and the night ended on a climax. We got to meet Juliet. Yay!

Camille O’Sullivan-Boy this girl has a fine set of lungs. The curvy songstress graced the Pet Sounds stage at Oxygen on Saturday 12th July.

I have heard of Camille through Jack L and Darren has introduced me to a few of her albums. I enjoyed the music, however it was a little Ute Lemper-ish for me. I like my jazz to be fast-paced and raunchy. It was all a bit laid back for me.

But, when I attended the show on Saturday, I was simply blown away. From reading a few reviews of previous performances, the Oxygen show seems to have taken a quite different direction to her previous tours. The tone of the show was mysterious and sexy and Camille strutted her stuff in no less three different outfits in only 8 songs.

The singer appeared to enjoy every moment of the show ( I use the word “show” because this was more than a gig) and giggled her way through the songs, in particular “In These Shoes”.

The fun was over far too quickly and despite Camille begging the producers to let her play one more song we were left gagging for more.

She is appearing in the Olympia on 29th November 2008 and tickets are available on Ticketmaster.

Go get tickets. Get them now!!!

The Delorentos – In Love with Detail

Why aren’t these guys huge? I guess they are getting there.

I first encountered The Delorentos live at the Choice Music Prize in February. I had heard them on the radio but not really paid much attention. In my mind they were another Irish rock-renewal piece trying to grab hold of the coat-tails of Snow Patrol and to a lesser extent (although I far prefer them) Bell X1.

After one song, I think it was Hands off the Boy I was hooked. The next day (my birthday) my lovely BF bought me the album, together with those of all most of the acts at the Awards.

It’s difficult not to be swept up in their sound. It’s up beat, on your feet, jump around like a mad thing fun listening. If you had a band this is what you would want them to sound like.

It’s a little bit obvious to compare them to the likes of The Clash, Bell X1, The Pixies, The Killers and Arcade Fire but this is the best oral parallel I can make. And sometimes, if you listen really closely, you can hear the lead singer Keiran channeling a little Tom York – but it must be said that the album is certainly much more up-tempo than anything you might expect from Radiohead.

The album comprises of 12 songs, each of which are uniquely identifiable, which is something that can’t often be said about some of the modern rock albums currently on release (Coldplay..cough).

My favourite tracks are….I think…it changes daily -

#1 – Any Other Way (click for clip)

#2 – Eustace Street

#3 - Stop

#5 – Hands off the Boy

#10 The Rules

Happily critical acclaim and recognition has not dampened their appetite for gigging and they are currently selling their wares around Dublin and the provinces. I unfortunalty missed them last week at The Academy in Dublin. Their upcoming dates around the country as as follows:-

4th July – Cyprus Avenue, Cork

5th July – Roisin Dubh, Galway

13th July – Oxygen – Belfast

15th August – Belsonic – Belfast

They are certainly a band to be watched and I highly recommend getting your hands on tickets if they cross your path.

I have been bitten by the bug of yet another TV series – Gossip Girl . While not a fanatic of the show I did enjoy The OC and when it concluded I was left a little void of vacuous teen Americans.

I finished watching the first season of GG last night and while I do intend to review what was a surprisingly intelligent and even realistic show what really got my attention was the soundtrack. One song in particular tickled my ear drums – Secret by The Pierces.

So while the album doesn’t seem to be available in Ireland I found it for sale on line. The compilation is entitled Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge and after my fist listen I think it has made its way into my favorite albums list (of which there is about 40 but this ranks close to the top). It’s not often I fall in love with an album on first listen. This is something that Anthony has also said about The Hours new album just today.

The Pierces comprise of two sisters from Alabama despite strong hints of an Irish accent in some of their songs, especially the 7th song on the album - Ruin.

It may sound like a mad mixture but their sound is analogous to a dark mix of Shirley Bassey, Gwen Steffani, Kate Bush and Portishead.

Rolling Stone described the album as a blend “glockenspiel-tinted folk to clubby electro-pop”.

The songs certainly live up to the title of the album heartbreak, vplots, lust and dark desire. as the clock strikes 10.30am I am currently on my third listen. I love new music!!!!

Below is one of my favorite songs on the album but I highly recommend downloading and giving a listen to the entire set.

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