[Dec 7, 2014] An acoustic evening with HamsandwicH (The Unitarian Church) (1 Viewer)

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An acoustic evening with HamsandwicH

The Unitarian Church – 7th December

Doors at 7.30pm

Tickets are €20 includes booking fee

On sale from ticketmaster.ie Friday 31st October 2014

Show is over 14s – No Alcohol is served


HamsandwicH: Niamh Farrell (vocals), Podge McNamee (guitar/vocals), David McEnroe (bass guitar), Brian Darcy (guitar/keyboards), Ollie Murphy (drums).
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The difference a few years can make in the life of a band can be many things, not least surprising and educational. They say a week is a long time in politics, but a few years in music is multiple lifetimes. And so HamsandwicH, the band you thought you knew very well, has turned into HamsandwicH, the band you second guess at your peril. You can tick the boxes here: last year saw the band perform at Slane Castle, support Mumford & Sons at Phoenix Park, and play at the President of Ireland’s Garden Party. This year HamsandwicH sold out their first headline gig at Dublin’s prestigious Olympia theatre, supported Arcade Fire and The Pixies at Marley Park during the summer, and stuffed out the Electric Arena tent at this year’s Electric Picnic. Not bad going for a band once battling with the dreaded ‘quirky’ tag, is it?

You can see the difference when they perform onstage – where there was once a band that seemed to revel in the occasional ramshackle live show now there is self-confidence, assurance and a sense of humour that is less slapstick and more on the subtle side.

It has been four years since the release of HamsandwicH‘s garlanded second album, White Fox, and while it remains for many something of a master class in quality indie pop (it featured in Irish Times’ writer Tony Clayton-Lea’s acclaimed book, 101 Irish Records You Must Hear Before You Die) it is now viewed by the band as just their very astute second album.

“It’s good that the songs on White Fox are still loved,” says Podge McNamee. “For such a short album it’s had a remarkably lengthy life, and to be honest, reworking White Fox through many gigs slowed down the writing for the new album; in fact, we almost rewrote White Fox, and that was something we weren’t used to. Most bands will tell you that the real way to learn your material is to get out of your comfort zone, and strip the songs down to the bare bones.”

HamsandwicH realised that being uncomfortable isn’t necessarily a bad thing - you learn from your mistakes, you experience things you wouldn’t otherwise encounter.

“You want to aim for, achieve and retain these,” says Niamh, “so that people can listen to the new material and know it isn’t going to sound like previous albums, yet it’s still going to sound like Hamsandwich. You want, ideally, people to hear the song on the radio without the DJ or presenter introducing the band name, but the listener will know it’s us.”

Alongside the challenges of forging individuality within a commercial framework is the band’s work ethic, which over the years has ricocheted from pillar to post, but which latterly has landed in quick-setting concrete. They pay tribute to their former manager Derek Nally (who died suddenly in July 2010 just before the recording of White Fox) as being the person to have drilled such disciplined sensibilities into them.

“The biggest change about this new album,” admits Podge, “is that we’re majorly fussy about it. Most artists will say that the best ideas come easy, without much effort in the creative process, but that’s debateable. Throughout the gathering of the new material, we worked very hard and had many ideas for each song. Ultimately, we didn’t want to write anything contrived.”

Perish that thought! With their new material, HamsandwicH have turned into a different, better band, not only more confident in their collective abilities but also in who they are and what they do.


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An acoustic evening with HamsandwicH at The Unitarian Church 7th December 2014

Tickets on sale Friday 31st December at 9am from ticketmaster.ie and outlets nationwide
 

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