the pope
New Member
"Taking place in the lower deck of the Lower Deck bar in Portobello, the Ballroom of Romance has quickly established itself as one of the most consistantly entertaining nights in a city full of tepid pay to play shows and fustratingly hit-and-miss gigs.
The concept is simple; three or four acts that complement each other; €6 in, and a free cd with a song from each act included.
The well designed cd's are a very welcome idea, and, along with the record stall, provide the regular crowd with a directory of the best of the dublin independent scene. why don't more promoters do this?
In recent shows the warlords of pez, capratone, boa morte, the chalets and the Holy ghost fathers, who also run the night, have headlined over a long list of emerging talent, varying between punk and songwriters, angry rock with harmonous pop.
Tonight its the turn of three emerging dublin bands and a singer-songwriter with an american indie act, lofine.
Kevin O'Rourke starts the night, singing accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. his melodies are sweet and blissful, inviting comparisions to many similar american acts such as lampchop and the more quiet moments of mercury rev. his lilting voice is perhaps a little low for the chatting crowd, but for those who listened, they heard a few pretty, unintrusive lullabies for the romantics in the audience.
The next act, morello, an irish itailian five piece, are a completely different comparison. the compare tells us that the lads are recording their debut album in their own studio, but on the strength of their energetic performance tonight, their presise pop-rock doesn't need one, as every note, beat and chord was struck with a professionalism noticably lacking in many acts of their genre. Indeed there is nothing about the way they play which shows a lack of practice, belief, or enjoyment of the catchy songs as every member of the guitar-and-sample driven group all bob and sway in time, usually with big smiles on their faces, to their no-bull, all power rock.
The next act 'Boxes', a very tall three piece, play a funny, angular bass driven type of angular rock, a sort of irish Big Black. the inventive time signatures (i think i heard 7/4 time at one stage) sound like they shouldn't work, but on songs like 'ICU' and 'same again', which was included on the cd, it does, and gloriously.
They have technical difficulties tonight, and spend delay time bantering with the apprieciative audience, (the unusually good atmosphere is one of the best features of these gigs) but no dodgy leads can stop this excellently dark rock group.
After a short delay, the wexford dublin quirk rock group Stoat take to the stage. Extensively played by pirate radio in dublin, their last two singles have sold very well, to much acclaim, and have quickly jumped to the top of the underground pack banging at the door of the irish mainstream.
Their excellent humour soaked songs and onstage personas shroud an excellent songwriting core, with original melodies and ingenous changes both in tempo and chords belying their throwaway style. with songs like 'gillette man', and a fantastic cover of 'girls just wanna have fun', stoat are the perfect antidote to the po-faced posturing that seems to stalk every corner of the dublin music lanscape. the people sitting beside me sangalong with almost every song, laughing at the jokes and grinning from ear to ear, a refreshing sight to counter the standard stand-with-pint-nod-to-music-clap-at-end-of-song stance at so many other.
fittingly, the night was endined by a hilarious ramshakle jam session where various members of the audience and bands got up and sang and rapped and generally made an arse of themselves for the benefit of the whooping crowd.
roll on Ballroom 11."
The concept is simple; three or four acts that complement each other; €6 in, and a free cd with a song from each act included.
The well designed cd's are a very welcome idea, and, along with the record stall, provide the regular crowd with a directory of the best of the dublin independent scene. why don't more promoters do this?
In recent shows the warlords of pez, capratone, boa morte, the chalets and the Holy ghost fathers, who also run the night, have headlined over a long list of emerging talent, varying between punk and songwriters, angry rock with harmonous pop.
Tonight its the turn of three emerging dublin bands and a singer-songwriter with an american indie act, lofine.
Kevin O'Rourke starts the night, singing accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. his melodies are sweet and blissful, inviting comparisions to many similar american acts such as lampchop and the more quiet moments of mercury rev. his lilting voice is perhaps a little low for the chatting crowd, but for those who listened, they heard a few pretty, unintrusive lullabies for the romantics in the audience.
The next act, morello, an irish itailian five piece, are a completely different comparison. the compare tells us that the lads are recording their debut album in their own studio, but on the strength of their energetic performance tonight, their presise pop-rock doesn't need one, as every note, beat and chord was struck with a professionalism noticably lacking in many acts of their genre. Indeed there is nothing about the way they play which shows a lack of practice, belief, or enjoyment of the catchy songs as every member of the guitar-and-sample driven group all bob and sway in time, usually with big smiles on their faces, to their no-bull, all power rock.
The next act 'Boxes', a very tall three piece, play a funny, angular bass driven type of angular rock, a sort of irish Big Black. the inventive time signatures (i think i heard 7/4 time at one stage) sound like they shouldn't work, but on songs like 'ICU' and 'same again', which was included on the cd, it does, and gloriously.
They have technical difficulties tonight, and spend delay time bantering with the apprieciative audience, (the unusually good atmosphere is one of the best features of these gigs) but no dodgy leads can stop this excellently dark rock group.
After a short delay, the wexford dublin quirk rock group Stoat take to the stage. Extensively played by pirate radio in dublin, their last two singles have sold very well, to much acclaim, and have quickly jumped to the top of the underground pack banging at the door of the irish mainstream.
Their excellent humour soaked songs and onstage personas shroud an excellent songwriting core, with original melodies and ingenous changes both in tempo and chords belying their throwaway style. with songs like 'gillette man', and a fantastic cover of 'girls just wanna have fun', stoat are the perfect antidote to the po-faced posturing that seems to stalk every corner of the dublin music lanscape. the people sitting beside me sangalong with almost every song, laughing at the jokes and grinning from ear to ear, a refreshing sight to counter the standard stand-with-pint-nod-to-music-clap-at-end-of-song stance at so many other.
fittingly, the night was endined by a hilarious ramshakle jam session where various members of the audience and bands got up and sang and rapped and generally made an arse of themselves for the benefit of the whooping crowd.
roll on Ballroom 11."
