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Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Gilla Band at In the Meadows review: Musical Marmite from Ireland's own Velvet Underground
Gilla Band In the Meadows, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin ★★★☆☆ A bulldozing onslaught of pure noise marks the start of Gilla Band's tumultuous set at the In the Meadows festival at Dublin's Royal Hospital Kilmainham . Fully justifying their reputation as one of the country's most uncompromising bands, their performance is a mix of short, sharp shocks and longer, bludgeoning interludes. It's like listening to the end of the world as relayed via the medium of early 1980s post-punk. Without being hyperbolic, there is a case that the group (who previously went as Girl Band) are a sort of Velvet Underground of 21st-century Irish indie music. They aren't stars in their own right, but their impact can be heard all over. Fontaines DC – off headlining Barcelona's Primavera Festival as Gilla Band take to the stage in Dublin – have named them as an influence. Idles Irish-born guitarist Mark Bowen has identified Gilla Band as one of the driving forces in the upsurge of new rock in Ireland in recent years. 'They made something that was completely new. When you listen to the first album, I don't think I've heard a band that sounds like this before,' he told The Irish Times in 2024. 'They've spawned the idea that you don't need to rely on UK or American culture to inform our culture.' READ MORE Such praise is worn lightly by Gilla Band, whose third album, Great Acclaim, was released in 2022 on London's Rough Trade – the label that championed The Smiths and, more recently, Mercury-nominated Irish trad band Lankum. Fans at Gilla Band's performance at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times Wearing a rumpled jacket and shirt, singer Dara Kiely looks like a civil servant who's arrived at the gig straight from back-to-back Zoom calls. His banter is limited to the occasional 'hello'. Under stark red-and-blue lighting, he and the rest of the band perform without swagger or showmanship as they begin with Backwash, which starts off sounding like post-punk stalwarts The Fall and ends up resembling the soundtrack to an alien invasion. Gilla Band have a murky prehistory as an Arctic Monkeys-style collective of guitar urchins called Harrows. Correctly concluding that Ireland didn't need another so-so indie band, they went from the next potential Picture This to a portrait of the musical apocalypse, influenced more by Francis Bacon then Franz Ferdinand. There is real darkness threaded through the pummeling, too. Kiely has talked about issues around anxiety. The group's second album, 2019's The Talkies, began with a recording of the singer breathing through a panic attack (foreshadowing Fontaines DC's single Starburster, which explores the same subject). The sheer, howling intensity of it all means their music isn't for everyone – or perhaps even most people. At In the Meadows, it has the quality of nerve-shredding Marmite as Kiely uncorks his lacerating wit on Post Ryan ('In recovery/I'm in recovery/I'm just the same prick'). They conclude with the funny and terrifying Eight Fivers – where nightmarish lyrics accompany a Stygian avalanche of guitar. 'I spent all my money on shit clothes, shit clothes,' howls Kiely. 'Didn't get 'em from Wicklow/Didn't get 'em from Arklow.' It's thrillingly, brutally uncompromising. Stepping out of the festival tent, into the cool, calm evening daylight, there is a sense of a storm having passed – that the listener has completed a sort of indie rock Stations of the Cross.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Lifeguard: Ripped and Torn review – this brilliant post-punk racket sounds like a trip to a rivet factory
After emerging from the Chicago DIY scene five years ago, Lifeguard's long-awaited debut crashes in with loud guitars and drums like a statement of intent. Opening track A Tightwire sets the template for the album: urgent, off-kilter and even slightly disorienting. The youthful trio of Kai Slater (guitar, vocals), Asher Case (bass, baritone guitar, vocals) and Isaac Lowenstein (drums, synth) have played together since high school, which has meant they have a musical understanding and are as tight as the proverbial nut. Theirs is angular, driving post-punk with audible echoes of the Pop Group, Wire, Gang of Four and the Wedding Present, but they've certainly brought their own spin to it. The songs blaze forth with hurtling, mostly indecipherable imagery. They could be yelling 'I am the spy on your pillow' or 'words like tonality come to me'. What does it all mean? Who knows – but it's fun thinking it through. There's a real sense of drama to the circular-saw guitars, slow builds and cascading basslines, from which spring effervescent tunes and interesting curveballs. Like You'll Lose is post-punk with a hymnal quality. The weirdly compulsive Music for 3 Drums knowingly references Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, but sounds as if it was recorded during a visit to a rivet-making factory. Some of their most distorted guitars, drones and screeching metal might prove too challenging for many palates, but it's refreshing to hear a young band make such a bold racket.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Murder Capital See German Shows Cancelled for Displaying Palestinian Flag
As Northern Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap face controversy for their overt support of Palestine, so too has Irish post-punk group The Murder Capital, who have seen two German shows cancelled due to their display of the Palestinian flag onstage. The group were scheduled to perform at Berlin venue Gretchen on Saturday (May 10), though the event was reportedly cancelled after discussions with the band about their habit of flying the Palestinian flag onstage during their live performances. More from Billboard Bad Bunny's 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' Returns to No. 1 on Billboard 200 After Vinyl Release John Legend Says He's Shocked by Ye's 'Descent' Into 'Antisemitism' and 'Anti-Blackness' Kelly Clarkson Tells Fans She's 'Bummed' Her Talk Show Stops Her From Touring During NJ Concert In response to the cancellation, The Murder Capital offered a spoken statement from outside the venue while holding the Palestinian flag. 'We pulled into Berlin this morning. We had no idea that we weren't allowed to fly this flag here today,' they explained. 'We discussed it for an hour at length, what we should do. We came to the decision that we were not going to take the flag off the stage,' they continued. 'That was a decision pretty easily made, but we discussed possible outcomes; 'What if they decide to cancel the show?'' According to the band, after deciding to go ahead with displaying the flag onstage, they were told they could not do so, nor could they replace the flag with a banner that read 'Free Palestine.' 'It's not just about national flags. It's about political statements,' they continued. 'And to us this isn't just a political statement, it's a humanitarian statement. We've been saying that in interviews for the whole time that we've been speaking about it as people. It's not all about politics, it's about people who are dying and being slaughtered every day, and that's happening right now. 'So, for us as a band, Who's had this flag on their stage for countless shows now. It would be the wrong thing for us to do to take it off the stage just so that the venue is kept happy. We don't agree with that. We don't agree. We spoke earlier today about this, about how we wish live music and art and theater could be free of political discussion and things like that, but as the world as it is, unfortunately it just cannot be. 'That's the way it is, so we'll be back to you as soon as we can,' they concluded. 'We appreciate all your support deeply. But most importantly, free Palestine.' Germany upholds strict laws in regard to antisemitism, with The Hollywood Reporter having noted that last year's edition of the Berlin Film Festival urged attendees to wear clothes or symbols showing solidarity with Palestine, but urged caution in regard to the usage of certain language for fear that it may fall into the category of language considered prohibited hate speech. In response to the cancellation of their show, The Murder Capital instead performed an acoustic set outside of Berlin venue Obentrautstraße 19. The band had intended to again fly the Palestinian flag at their subsequent show in Cologne on Sunday (May 11), though they later confirmed the gig at Gebäude 9 was similarly cancelled, with an acoustic performance at Rheinpark taking place instead. 'We arrived into Cologne this morning hoping that what happened in Berlin yesterday would be an isolated incident, but tonight's venue Gebäude 9 has also told us that we cannot have the Palestinian flag on our stage,' the band explained in a video shared to social media. 'The Palestinian flag itself needs to be on our stage and needs to be as visible everywhere in the world as possible,' they added. 'These people are being eradicated, being starved, being bombed, and these war crimes and this genocide is being committed by the Israeli state and funded and supported by governments around the world. 'Us having a flag on our stage at a rock show is not a political statement. It is a human reaction to a horrific and unimaginable situation. But this is not history, it is happening right now today.' The Murder Capital's cancelled German performances aren't an isolated incident. In April, fresh from the controversy surrounding the pro-Palestine and anti-Israel sentiments projected during their Coachella set, Kneecap were removed from the lineup of the Hurricane and Southside festivals in June, with their headline dates in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg for September soon being axed as well. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
