“Picture this: 1990. Newbridge, County Kildare. My mate Graham Coffey gets a drum kit for Christmas. He calls everybody in our gang at school and asks who has an instrument. My “Flock of Seagulls” brother had a Yamaha DX27 synth. So I was on keys. I could play the riff from “Live and Let Die” and that was all… but it was enough! We played (that song) over and over and over, and Metrical Faucherie were born. Some things shouldn’t be born, though; WE WERE AWFUL! But straight away I was hooked on being in a band and have been ever since.”
– Rob McDonnell, guitars, Able Archer
I love the bass. Furthermore, I love a great bass sound, coming through in the mix of a song like a runaway bus through a field of daisies. Able Archer respect the bass. I love this about them, along with their sound: insistent, pounding, turned up to eleven. Set to be a show of raucous proportions, be sure to catch them on Sweeney’s Basement stage on Friday, 12/6, at 11pm.
“My first band was a punk band called Utter Confusion. I played guitar and sang, but that was because nobody else did. We made a few waves playing at a school talent show. Our first gig (was) back when I was 16. We had a song inspired by that style of UK punk called Oi. We played a song that had “Oi Oi Oi!” in the chorus, and we offended a few folks because they thought that we were racist or anti-semitic. Lots of newspapers became involved; I think we were in the New York Times, and we even got into Rolling Stone over it! It was a little story that was big for a couple of days, but we weren’t racists or anything like that so it died after shortly thereafter. But I tell you, I certainly learned that music is an art that can sometimes bring about the strangest reactions in people.”
– JM Burr, Reverend JM’s Panic Worship
One of the best things about music in Dublin is that since the city is so small, bands from wildly differing genres often find themselves drawing influence from all the other unexpected sounds around them. Reverend JM’s Panic Worship is one of the best examples of this uniquely Irish “genre-less” sound. Dark, playful melodies wind out of an assembly of unexpected instruments, played with intimate know-how. A second-to-none act, they play the Mercantile Stage on Friday, 12/6, at 9.30pm.
“Imagine four people who can barely play any instruments coming together to play a gig the next day. Best fun I’ve ever had. Stall The Digger for life!”
– Sean Wynne, lead vox and banjo, The Quakers
Yes. Just yes. If you’re not hooked from the count-in; blasted into the Quakers universe like a pistol shot in a gunfight over an insult to your Pa, and buoyed along by the gospel-meets-football-hooligan dynamism, then you, my friend have no ears. Possibly also no soul. Seriously good music. These boys are riled up and fit for fightin’, and they’re not leaving without you. Get shanghaied at the Busking Stage on Saturday, 13/6 at 5pm, and again at Sweeney’s Upstairs stage at 10pm.
“The first band I was ever in was with two of my friends from secondary school. Well, we thought we were a band! We called ourselves Halo. We rehearsed about 4 times – in total! And we had a collection of ONE song, which I can still remember writing. I was the singer, one of the girls rapped, and the other one just busted a whole lot of dodgy moves! We were shite.”
– Elaine Doyle, vocals, The Riot Tapes
Synth melodies surge around a sturdy, attractive rhythm section, giving vocalist Elaine a heady platform from which to sermonise; all significant viva voce and ‘sweet-but-not-that-damn-sweet’ songcraft sass. One of Ireland’s most notable new acts, they play Sweeney’s Basement stage on Saturday, 13/6, at 8.45pm.
