Music
The first concert I’ve ever been to that involved commercial breaks, and suffered for it. Marketed as a concert with the filming for a TV station only mentioned as a side note, the organizers of John Mayer at the Beacon theater pretty much made an audience pay a hundred dollars a ticket to cheer and create ambient noise or ‘ambi’, as those in the biz like to call it. As Mayer muttered his way through the commercial intervals unscripted and unprepared, there was a distinct sense of being cheated amongst the troops- I mean, couldn’t he at least have prepared a joke or anecdote? Were we only there to serve the sales of his new album?
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Contrary to an uncommon yet amusing misconception, the term ‘free jazz’ is not to be taken literally. Perhaps someone should have told the massive crowd who turned up to an Ornette Coleman concert in 1969 with empty pockets. Something makes me think that they might regret their frugality, as Coleman was to become regarded as one of the most highly influential innovators and involuntary revolutionaries in the history of jazz music, and may have been worth a few spare pennies and a handful of lint.
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Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival which will run from 24th Sept – 11th Oct 2009 and is once again sponsored by Ulster Bank.
- This year’s programme offers a wealth of Irish and international productions.
- For the first time the Festival will tour a production to 3 venues during the Festival.
- International productions include: Direct from the deserts of India, The Manganiyar Seduction; Declan Donnellan’s version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Chekhov International Theatre Festival and Cheek by Jowl); Robert Lepage’s The Blue Dragon; National Theatre UK and Live Theatre Newcastle present Lee Hall’s hit The Pitmen Painters. Highlights in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Cet Enfant (Compagnie Louis Brouillard) and Kamp from Hotel Modern.
- Major interactive light installation Playhouse which will illuminate Liberty Hall.
June 2009 – The Abbey Theatre presents Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s celebrated comedy of manners THE RIVALS as this year’s summer production. One of theatre’s most enduring comedies, the national theatre’s production is directed by Patrick Mason and opens for an eight week run on Wednesday 28 July 2009.
A cherished dream is finally becoming a reality with the imminent re-opening of Druid’s newly refurbished home on Druid Lane in Galway. The theatre will be unveiled with a production of The Gigli Concert by Tom Murphy as part of Galway Arts Festival (July 14-25). The production will then transfer to the Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork (July 28 – August 1) before returning to Galway to the Town Hall Theatre (August 4th – 8th). Widely regarded as Tom Murphy’s masterpiece, The Gigli Concert will embark on an extensive tour of Ireland in November and December.
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Welsh rock band ‘Funeral For A Friend’ have been around for a while but now they’ve launched their own label, ‘Join Us’, and released a new album, ‘Memory and Humanity’. Despite their busy schedule- they are in the middle of a UK tour- Ryan Richards, drummer and backing vocalist, took time out to talk to The Irish Critic. We find out about the new album and their rapid rise to fame.
Rough and ready as they come, The Rapparees (who formed about six years ago), have been described by Hotpress as ‘irresistably rough-arsed’ and that’s exactly what they are.
The music of ‘Funeral for a Friend’ is difficult enough to pin down. Is it emo? Maybe metal? They prefer just ‘rock’. Ihad just decided to put the issue to rest when I heard the latest track from their new album ‘Memory and Humanity’, and was thrown into a whole new state of confusion. ‘Kicking and Screaming’ is ‘extreme pop’: Ryan Richards describes it as ‘basically a pop song played loud, hard and turned up to 11.’
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To the untrained ear the debut album from Sheffield’s finest teenage rockers may sound like, well, a bunch of noise. Tut tut. Listen harder and you’ll find that it is so much more (that’s what they say anyway).
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