From the comfort of a pint by the fire to the concert, last night was cosy and intimate as the Donegal pop duo Little Hours kicked off their first headlining Irish tour at Whelan’s in Dublin. The venue was packed to the delight of John Doherty (vocals, acoustic guitar) and Ryan McCloskey (vocals, piano) playing once again together without extra musicians as they have done in some recent shows. Opening with ‘Tracks’ the band executed a mix of all of their most famous songs from their sole EP release from a year ago, to a great cover of Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’ (popular ever since the Sunday Live Session) and some exciting new material. In between the songs, the lads cracked some jokes or told stories about the upcoming track, which gave a further ‘up close and personal’ feeling to the performance. The Encore track ‘Ember’ got the best response of the night with most of the crowd happily singing along to the band’s encouragements.
On the downside however, one might regret that Little Hours did not succeed in fully capturing the whole of the audience as relatively loud chatter could be heard throughout the set, not that it disturbed the band from their spot on performance. Furthermore, I personally disliked the ‘Kanye West -like’ (in Ryan’s words) auto tune addition to ‘Call Somebody’ which could benefit from being used with more parsimony as it does not add much to Ryan’s flawless voice… perhaps even spoiling it by its redundancy.
Overall a great gig and some very promising new material that makes me impatient to hear the next record, hopefully a LP this time.
The Fandom Menace: 20 questions from fans to The Strypes - Bonus & Giveaway
When I started this music blog a couple months ago, I had no idea that I would soon have the opportunity to interview one of my favourite of bands, THE STRYPES. I was happily surprised when their management allowed me to organise it and so in the interest of doing something different I asked fans to send me their own questions. This is an interview by a fan for the fans. I would like to thank all you guys for sending them in and I do apologise if yours did not make the cut. The video quality might not be great as I have never filmed nor edited a video interview before, yet I am quite pleased with how it turned out. Prepping and editing this interview was quite a lot of work (and loads of fun!) and I really hope you will like it:
Fellow French/Breton fans might be happy to know that I brought them crêpes from Brittany (I was home the previous week) as a reminder of the Vieilles Charrues Festival, which they confirmed again to me as being the best gig they have ever played.
In my hand luggage every single time I fly back from Brittany. #BretonExpatIssues
After the interview, I actually stuck around as one of my mates had won two places for the third Universal Fan Session with The Strypes and had asked me to come along. I had not heard about it before so I did not really know what to expect but Universal made it into a really cool experience for the five fans selected and their plus ones:
We were first brought into a room with snacks and drinks on the table and given goodie bags with a hard copy of Little Victories, a few postcards, a sticker and a ‘Universal Fan Session’ mug and badge.
The lads made their entry to the ‘Imperial March’ music from Star Wars (which gave me the idea for the intro of my interview) and played three acoustic songs:
Get into it
84
Cab fare home
They also asked someone to play a song for them, and a girl (sorry but I don’t know her name) stepped out and beautifully sang a tune that I did not know. Respect!
In between these, we did a short Q&A which I will try to summarise for you:
- Meeting famous people is impressive but in the end everyone is fairly normal
- Their favourite Elton John album/track: ‘His next album’ (Josh), ‘The Lion King Soundtrack’ (Pete)
- The songs they haven’t covered yet that they would like to cover: ‘It’s raining men’ (Josh)
- Which band they would like to cover them: Rage against the Machine covering ‘Now She’s gone’ and Tinie Tempha covering ‘I wanna be your everyday’ (Josh), Bono covering all their songs (Pete or Evan) or Madonna (Ross).
Then they asked us a question: who else do we listen to except for them? We all answered one by one. If you care at all, my answer was the French band The BB Brunes, which I explained are a bit similar to them (in the sense that when I was 14 they were a band of 17 year olds that quickly became the national Rock’n’Roll sensation. Great lyrics and really good live too! My personal favourite track is ‘Sixty Eight’ but the lyrics are in French. They also have an EP in English called ‘EP’)
After that the lads signed the CDs/posters from the wall and took selfies and group pictures.
I then just had time to go home to drop off all of my stuff and went straight back out to The Academy for the (sold out) gig. The Mighty Stef opened the show with their usual kick ass energy (while The Strypes were watching from the balcony), followed on by BP Fallon’s poem/slam ‘I believe in’ received with an enthusiastic response from the audience. Then The Strypes went on for an outstanding performance in front of a delighted moshing crowd. What a crazy day!
Setlist:
Now she’s gone
What a shame
84
Best man
What the people don’t see
Cruel brunette
I’m the man
I don’t wanna know
3 Streets and a village green
Cab fare home
Queen of the half crown
Get into it
Scumbag city
Mystery man
Hometown girls
BCJ
Still gonna drive you home
I need to be your only
(Encore:)
Kick out the jams
Rollin & Tumblin
You can’t judge a book
GIVEAWAY
I am starting to have quite a collection of signed items by the lads (one of the perks of liking a local band!) and thought this time I could give YOU the chance to get one. Hence I bought the September edition of Irish Hot Press magazine and made The Strypes sign it when I met them for the interview. I am also throwing in a few postcards from the Fan Session goodie bag with it.
To WIN, you can play on Twitter and/or Facebook using the links below. The winner will be randomly selected. The giveaway is open worldwide. A participation on each social media gives you one chance in the draw, hence you can play play on both to double your chances.
This first of October was all about one of the most iconic pop-punk bands of all time: FALL OUT BOY! The US band opened their European tour in the Emerald Isle's capital.
PETE WENTZ AT TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
In the morning, Pete Wentz made a stop by Trinity College Dublin, the most prestigious university in the country, to accept the Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage of the Philosophical Society. He then did a Q&A in front some lucky few of the Society members, including myself. He answered questions about his career, his music and his life philosophy. He remembered that the first time Fall Out Boy played in a small club in Belfast and confessed that the song to which he related the most to is Sugar, We're Goin Down, which he reckons is also the track which allowed him to tour the world and be here in Ireland today, but his most memorable statement was when he shared a tale from a Native American tribe:
"There is this father, and he is talking to his son and he is like, 'There are two wolves inside of everybody. There is one wolf that is all sadness and selfishness, and lacks confidence, and is insincere and doesn’t understand the world. And there is this other wolf. The other wolf is compassion, and joy, and empathy, and peacefulness. And they fight inside everybody', so the boy is like, 'Well, how do you decide which wolf wins?' And the father answered 'Well, the wolf that you feed the most is the one that wins. You’re the only person who can choose which wolf to feed.' And don’t forget that. You know, feed the right wolf."
He also spoke of his understanding of the importance to be nice to his fans, as he is not only a fan of other artists himself (he spoke of that time he met Drake) but also as a father, and how it would affect his kids if their idols would not treat them right.
Pete then went in another room to sign the Society's Guest Book and take pictures with the organising committee of the Phil. As he walked out, a few fans and myself were still waiting outside in the hope of getting a picture. Despite his bodyguard and the Phil's president repeatedly insisted that Pete had to go and could not take any further selfies, Pete proposed a very quick group picture to make everyone satisfied. Top lad! 'Pete, could I get you to sign this please' I then asked him while holding out a part of my flag and a marker as he was about to go down the stairs. He did it and calmly made is way out whilst shaking the hands of the people waiting outside the building. This is a tiny man of great talent and with a big heart.
THE GIG
OPENING ACT 1: CHARLEY MARLEY
The first opening act is a protege of Pete Wentz himself. Alternative musician Charley Marley is the first British artist to be signed on Pete's label DCD2 Records. On stage with a drummer and a DJ, Charley struggled to get the audience into it during the first track. During the second one, Pete made an appearance of literally 10 seconds on stage to film Charley with his phone. And the crowd went wild...! Following this impromptu visit, the audience stayed warmed up and jumped and cheered along the rest of the short set, responding to Charley's incitements to do so. My major critique would be technical: the music was louder than his mic and one could hardly understand him, especially when he was speaking in between songs, as his DJ kept the music on even then. However, he has got a great sound and a good stage presence, hence I shall add him to my list of upcoming artists to keep an eye on.
OPENING ACT 2: PROFESSOR GREEN
The British rapper had no troubles getting the crowd going with a series of his hit songs, including I Need you Tonight, Just Be Good to Green, Remedy, Monster and Read All About It. Great performance!
FALL OUT BOY
I have been listening to FOB ever since I was a teenager, yet it was the first time I saw them live. My inner-emo-teen was dying with excitement. Their latest LP American Beauty/American Psycho is in my top-3 pop-alt-rock records of 2015 (along with All Time Low's Future Hearts and Bring Me The Horizon's That's the Spirit). The gig kick off with Sugar, We're Goin Down. The rest of the 21 track-long setlist included at least two tracks from their six albums, thereby covering their whole discography since 2003. Looking down at the pit (I was in the first balcony) I found the crowd a bit calm during the first couple of tracks... Irresistible and The Phoenix finally got the audience jumpin' and movin' like it should.
After This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race, the band gave way to a short-movie while they were moving to the small stage in the middle of the pit for an acoustic version of Immortals and Young Volcanoes.
Whilst they made their way back to the main stage, Andy Hurley did an amazing drum solo! The second part of the gig was much better in my opinion, the crowd was much more 'into it'. Perhaps because it contained their biggest recent hits, like American Beauty/American Psycho, Uma Thurman andCenturies, their timeless successes Dance Dance andThnks Fr Th Mmrs as well as their famous cover of Michael Jackson's Beat It. The Encore consisted of My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) with awesome pyrotechnics (as well as a couple of little fireworks) during the chorus and Saturday, during which Pete took up the mic and ended in the crowd.
Overall it was an excellent gig! The performance was on point, the visual effects (videos, the pyrotechnics on two songs, giant balloons thrown in the public) were awesome and Patrick's voice flawless. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
On the downside, I thought that the order of the setlist was not ideal. I always thought that Uma Thurman would make an amazing opening track, with the band walking on stage in the dark and the song would start at the same time that the light would turn on, in an explosive musical in media res. Same for the closing song of the Encore, I would have picked Thnks Fr Th Mmrs because I believe it is better to end on a well-known energetic track, which would leave the fans eager for more. Plus the title of the song destines it to be a great closing song. Saturday is a good track but less known by the most recent fans and the general public. Furthermore, a little bit more communication with the audience would have been great. Patrick and Pete spoke a little bit about the fact that they were glad to be doing a big show in Ireland after a couple of songs, and Pete told the wolves tale that he had narrated previously at Trinity, but that is about it.
From left to right: Anthony, Brian, Leah, me, Tara and Sam
I first came across Beware of You when they were announced as contestants of the ‘War at the Button’ competition at The Button Factory in Dublin. I did not go but when I saw they were a pop-punk band I liked their Facebook page to remember to check them out later on. One Friday evening I was on a ‘Facebook break’ whilst working at Trinity College Library where I am studying when I saw that Beware of You announced a last minute gig at The Mercantile starting right then literally just a 5 minute walk away from my uni. It took me 3.17 minutes of listening to their first single ‘Control’ to decide that it was worth dropping it all and going to check them out live.
They are actually a really cool live band. Great energy, they are cracking jokes and talking to the audience in-between songs, Beware of You is the type of band you will always enjoy live if you are a pop-punk lover! I also like the fact that Sam and Brian jump off the stage to play from the pit, they really aren't scared to engage with the public.
Ahead of the band’s biggest live show opening for Against the Current in a sold out Academy, I spoke to Beware of You to find out more about them, their new EP 'Self Portraits' and their past and upcoming shows!
Hey guys, could you start by introducing yourselves?
Leah: I’m Leah, I’m 20 and I am the singer.
Tara: I’m Tara, I’m 20 and I’m lead guitar.
Sam: I’m Sam, I’m 19, I’m rhythmic guitar.
Brian: I’m Brian, I’m old at 27. And I’m the bassist.
Anthony: And I’m Anthony, I’m 19 and I play drums.
Where does your name ‘Beware of You’ come from?
Brian: The name comes from a saying by Hayley Williams from Paramore and we took it on because we feel we relate to it a lot. It means: you are in control of your own destiny, you can make it the best life or the worst life in the world and we are out there to make it the best for ourselves and hopefully we can bring you along with us’ and that’s where the name comes from.
Sam: We also couldn’t think of a better name! [All laugh]
Well, that is a cool name, I like it! So you guys are fans of Paramore, but what other bands do you listen to? Do you have a favourite band?
Leah: That would be between The Killers and Tegan and Sara.
Anthony: At the moment it is Periphery and You Me At Six, which are miles apart but it’s just what’s inspiring me at the moment.
Tara: Paramore and Tonight Alive.
Sam: Bring Me The Horizon and Buddy Rich.
Ok, Sam what do you think about the BMTH new album ‘That’s the Spirit’?
Sam: It’s unbelievable, I love it! It’s definitely different to their early heavy stuff…
Yeah, I am obsessed with ‘Throne’.
Sam: Oh yeah, it’s class! It’s so good!
So back to my initial question, favourite bands?
Brian: [to Sam] You stole my influence. So, Bring Me The Horizon, All Time Low, You Me At Six and Chunk! No Captain Chunk!
Did you see All Time Low back in March when they played the Olympia [17th March 2015]?
Brian: I met them! They gave me guestlist for the night!
So, how did you form the band?
Brian: I was looking for a band to play a gig that I was organising but before ATL played here actually, and I got on to Tara because her old band was the same style of music and she said ‘Oh we [she and Anthony] are not in that band anymore, we are looking for a bassist and a singer’ and I said ‘Oh well, I’m a bassist’ and at the time they only knew me as a photographer, so she told me to come down for a jam. So I went and on that same day, Leah was there auditioning to be the singer and we ended up playing ‘Proud Mary’ and the rest is history.
Leah: We found Sam a little while later. We had a few different rhythmic guitars in our rehearsals and every single person did not stick with us and we had two guys coming in the day Sam was there and he just fit straight away.
Sam: Because I’m good, like really good.
Leah: Yeah… [Laugh] And Tara and Sam know each other since years ago.
Tara: We met when we were like 17.
Sam: She really did not like me! She hated me!
Tara: [Laugh] When I met him, he wouldn’t speak and I would be like ‘urgh that kid looks a bit weird’ and then we did not spoke for about two years and then one day he messaged me on Facebook about coming to an audition for my old band and I told him ‘No I am in a new one now, because whatever’ and from that point it was all of us together…
Sam: I still don’t like you! [All laugh]
And what was the first concert you’ve ever been to?
Brian: Oh fuck that’s gonna be embarrassing!
Leah: Oh my god, it was Hear'Say. [All laugh]
Brian: Me too!
Leah: Was yours Hear’Say? Oh my god, no way, imagine we were at the same Hear'Say concert! [All laugh]
Who is Hear'Say?
Leah: It’s really old. It’s a boy and girl pop kinda group and they were a bit like S club 7 and they were together to maybe a year. They were really big for like 2 seconds and then just disappeared. [All laugh] But yeah I remember… Hear'Say! They’re great!
Tara: Mine was Paramore. I have gone to two concerts and both were Paramore! [Laugh]
Sam: My auntie bought me tickets to Deep Purple for my 14th birthday… yeah that’s smoke in the water that band! But nobody would go with me because everyone else I was friends with hated Deep Purple so I had to bring my auntie with me out to county Cork to go watch Deep Purple play! That was a great gig, it was Steve Morse playing guitar. I love him!
Brian: This is embarrassing. I went to the same possibly Hear'Say gig as Leah. I actually loved them! I was one of those fangirls!
Fangirling is life!
Brian: Yeah it is life! [Laugh]
Anthony: I’m like in the same thing as Sam. I went to see Metallica at Marlay Park back in 2008 and I was too young and nobody else went so I had to go with my dad. I was actually to small to see over the crowd of people but my dad let me stand on his shoes so I was just high enough so I could see. It was awesome!
Tara: Awww, he still can’t bleedin’ see, look at the size of him!
Brian: He is big on the inside!
You launched your first EP on the 19th of August, can you tell me more about it?
Leah: It’s called ‘Self Portraits’. Identity is a big theme in it, hence the name. We recorded it down at Red Lake Studio in Portlaoise. We had a great time there with Gary Duncan. We are gonna go back again soon to record our album. We have a few more songs that are not on the EP, we just chose the one that shows us off the best just to get ourselves out there.
And you got a great response!
Brian: Yeah, the response for 'Self Portraits' was incredible! It was above and beyond anything we ever expected. It managed to reach number 7 in the Irish charts and we honestly can't thank everyone enough for their support.
You guys just played at Electric Picnic, how did that happened?
Leah: Our first gig we played as a band was actually here in The Mercantile at the King Kong Club [bands battles event] with Keiron. We played three songs and we had brought nobody with us and it was judged by clapper-meter, so the band with the more cheers wins. The other band had brought all of their friends. But they didn’t get through. So we had to do a tie-breaker, and everybody that was there for the other band said they would cheer for us. And we ended up both getting through in that round. It was unheard of. He said in like 11 years it never happened.
Brian: I have done the King Kong Club with different bands 4 times and it has never happened! Two bands never get through. So the time we went through as two bands, it was the first ever. It was just so loud and energetic from everybody, it was crazy!
Leah: So then we went back for the semi-final and if you won it you get to play at Electric Picnic, so we tried to round up as many people as possible and all the other bands wanted to play Electric Picnic too so it was so packed in that tiny little place. We ended up winning and we are playing on the Oxjam stage in Electric Picnic woohoo! And we still have one more King Kong to do.
The King Kong final was on the 30th of September and BOY unfortunately did not won the first prize but they got booked for further gigs thanks to it so well done lads!
We also won different things like Gigs for Stage.ie, and Battle for the bay, that we played on the beach, it was really cool.
Tara: And we are gonna go the Lamps and Amps live session soon.
Leah: We played another festival before but it was quite small so it’s great to get out there.
Brian: Electric Picnic was incredible. We were on quite early on the Friday so we weren't expecting too many people to be there when we played, We thought it would just be friends we knew at the festival. We were completely wrong. There was a load of people there. Some had heard of us and went out of their way to get to us early and a good few people who stopped as they were walking by. The whole weekend was amazing too. We stopped by a few of our friends, who were playing too, like our good friend Anti-One. the big acts playing were great but this year we think the smaller lesser known acts on the smaller stages championed the festival! A great experience all round!
You are opening for US band Against the Current at The Academy Dublin for a sold out show in two weeks, how excited are you about it? Did you prepare anything different from your normal gigs?
Brian: Oh man! We could not be any more excited for it! I worked hard to get us on the bill and the feel was unbelievable when they announced it. We've played some big shows, like Electric Picnic, but this one is by far the most important for us. We are looking at this as a stepping stone to the next level of the band. It's an amazing opportunity to be playing with a band who are signed to a large well known label and are on a world tour. We can't wait to show them why they say the Irish are the best fans in the world! As for preparing anything different... not really. We're just going to do what has worked for us in the past and enjoy every moment. As you know, we're a bit wild on (and off) stage when we preform... expect more of that and some other crazy antics.
So you only play in Ireland for now?
All: For now!
Brian: We are in talks with other bands in Dublin and around Ireland and also in places like the UK, Germany and the USA about organising a load of shows. So keep an eye out for them. Some of those will happen this year and some will be next year... who knows, maybe we'll take a leaf out of Against The Current's book and do a little world tour.
What about France?
Brian: France! Oui, oui! [All laugh] I am trying to get gigs with Chunk! No Captain Chunk! and we are gonna go down to Perpignan, Marseille, Biarritz, Toulon, maybe Lyon and Rennes.
That’s where I did my undergrad!
Brian: I did Erasmus there! In ESC Rennes. It was great, I was in a class with all French students and everybody else were in international classes, so I learnt a lot of French and it happened that my class was the party organisation committee so I got into all the parties for free and got free drinks all the time. That’s gotta make an Irishman happy!
Did you hang out a lot at the Rue de la soif [It’s a famous street with only bars]?
Brian: Every day! E-ve-ry day! And the Cactus, it’s a pub there, it might not be there anymore because I did it in 2010…
I was in Rennes too that year.
Brian: Oh! Did we meet each other? Oh oh!
I would remember you.
Brian: No you wouldn’t! [All laugh]
Sam: You missed out!
Alright, that’s it for me, thank you so much guys! Any last words?
Leah and Tara: Thank you!
Sam: Our band is terrible! [All laugh] So bad! Don’t buy our EP! It’s awful!
Leah: But if you do, it’s called ‘Self Portraits’ and you can buy it on iTunes or you can buy a hardcopy from us if you want. [it’s a fiver!]
Sam: A message to Offend Brand: endorse Brian! [Brian is wearing an OB tee]
Brian: It is a Paris based streetwear brand founded and operated by Paul C. Wilson, guitarist of the band Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!
----------
Since that interview was made, Tara actually announced leaving the band a couple of days ago. I contacted them to find out how they were coping with it and Brian told me: ‘We were sad to say goodbye to her, but we still love her and wish her the best in her next musical adventure. Sam has stepped up to mix duties between the lead and rhythm guitar. He switches in and out of each one depending on what works best for the songs. We are looking for a second guitarist and have a few people lined up. We're not just looking for a good guitarist but somebody who will fit in well with us as people in and out of the band. They'll have to have a strong sense of humour and be able to just as much of an oddball as we are at times haha.’
----------
You can catch up with Beware of You as they open for Against the Current on the 13th of October at the Academy Dublin (sold out) and at the upcoming two gigs at Whelan’s (dates TBA).
