So after all the furore about me “disliking all music“, I recovered enough from my emotional injuries and bruised ego to make two more shows in Andrew’s Lane Theatre. Friday for M83, Saturday for Why?. In short – I missed the first 20 minutes of the M83 gig as I was at a wedding in Monaghan. We did walk into the venue when ‘Kim and Jessie’ kicked in which brought a smile to my face. The rest of the set was (apparently) a lot more upbeat than the first half and when the focus shifted from shimmering shoegaze to more electronic energy, it was all the better for it. The closer, ‘Coleurs’ was superb.
Saturday’s event was one I was relishing all week as I’m totally absorbed in Why’s new album Alopecia. It seems judging by the reaction the band received before they even picked up an instrument, Joni Wolf and co are already highly regarded. The whole show was extremely engaging, Yoni’s lyrics are some of the most unique and searing you’ll ever hear. His brother Josiah’s unusual drum setup involved playing a drumkit and a xylophone at the SAME TIME. Awesome.
In truth, I’d never heard Why? until very recently when a few people starting telling me about Alopecia but to my surprise a good percentage of the audience were devotees to their previous album Elephant Eyelash. They knew every word to those songs and were extremely enthuasiastic. There did seem to be a gap though of people who are in love with EE but have not heard Alopecia and vice versa. They each have a fantastic album to hear with fresh ears.
It was definitely a slow-burning, under the radar, triumph of a gig so if you were there, I am curious – How did you get into Why?
M83: More photos after the jump.
Why?: Read my interview with Yoni Wolf from Why? @ State.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
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I love the photos but won’t get into MySpace for personal reasons. I am sorry I will be missing links you carefully added to your blog post. 🙁
Tina,
You don’t need an account to view the pages on myspace.
Yoni played on ‘Ships’ by Danielson and I made it my mission to track down all the guests from that flipping deadly album.
It was a nice surprise to see so many fans considering it was originally to be Upstairs in Whelan’s. Don’t think anyone expected that!
“Furore” … The Marketing Sharks was furore. The State debate is a piffle, a hilarious one at that. That unwitting, da-glo, non-blog-reading soul surely didn’t have a clue what they were letting themselves in for. Tina’s calming influence probably would have come in handy…
I like Why? …picked up EE a few weeks ago and love it! Don’t have Alopecia yet, isn’t it cool knowing there’s good stuff yet to come?
I saw Subtle at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco and was the most intriguing live show ever. Yoni’d worked with Dose One and I picked up EE as soon as I could, about a year ago now. Still my fave Bay Area album ever.
I saw clouddead (along with a boom-bip and doseone solo set- for a tenner, best money I ever spent) in Whelans about six or seven years ago, having been blown away by their debut album. I’ve made a point of pretty much buying everything any member of clouddead has made since then- it has proven to be a wise investment policy. The gig was absolutely cracking, lacked the performance/theatrics of a Subtle gig but made up for with the tunes. I thought you’re point you made about Alopecia being easier listening than EE in the State article was interesting. I would have said it was the other way around, but maybe I just know EE better. Both great records anyway, glad they’re getting the coverage they totally deserve. And nice to see grown-ups at a gig too!
i saw that clouddead/boom bip & doseone tour in a pretty much empty venue in edinburgh and they totally charmed the pants off everyone there.
everyone was super friendly, enthusiastic and went for a few beers with some fans afterwards. the music was pretty fantastic too.
Saw a review on Pitchfork a while ago. Then you were going on about them on this blog. Great gig, great crowd. Got a lovely Why? t-shirt too. Never thought baby blue would be my colour but there you go. Hadn’t seen any of the kerfuffle over at State.ie until now either, you music-hating bastad!Jaaaaaysus, Aggro City, Arizona wha’?
[quote post=”1176″]It was a nice surprise to see so many fans considering it was originally to be Upstairs in Whelan’s. Don’t think anyone expected that![/quote]
Bobby, I must credit you as the first to mention Why? to me. So … thanks!
dude, they opened up for yo la tengo which is a nod if any, and they’re hooked up with anticon… double true
Saw Why? last year at ATP. They played as a 2 piece then with both of them sharing pretty much the one kit and then some. Was amazing. Saturday was great too though. Loving ALT (as my hand read) as a venue. ‘A sky to chew horses under’ was fantastic. Best song of the night.
That top shot of M83 is fab btw.
cLOUDEAD’s last album was recommended to me by a friend and I have bought everything I could get my hands on from Anticon since.
Was taken aback by the level of enthusiasm for Why? also. It’s incredibly difficult to ascertain which bands are popular in this country. last.fm provides probably the best way of telling who’s listening to what in this country and even then it’s not reliable.
I heard about Why? from the Pitchfork review of Alopecia. It took some time to get into, despite my adoration for Subtle. But the gig was great. Now time to go and look at some black and puerto rican porno…
Saw the video for Sanddollars on 120 minutes back when it came out. Downloaded EE as soon as I could and it quickly became one of my favourite albums thereafter. Gig was amazing, slightly surprised that they didn’t play anything off Oaklandazulasylum, not that it took away from the performance.
Friends were talking about them, and provided me with albums. Also blogs like here and Jim Carroll &c. I actually listened to Oaklandazulasylum pretty much exclusively for about a month, and then EE, and had to sort of crash course in Alopecia to get my money’s worth out of the gig.
Thumped Kompilation Klub 2 or 3 years ago, got a cd with a cLOUDDEAD track on it, turned into the biggest anticon freek, bought everything i could..yadda yadda yadda, here i am today. Oaklandazulasylum is still my fave why? release.
jonas bjerre of mew mentioned them in an interview along with some other musicians i’ve enjoyed. i looked them up but couldn’t find much music to steal with the ubiquitous name… broke down and bought elephant eyelash on itunes when i heard they were playing hotel utah in sf in november and then picked up oaklandazulasylum at the show. been tracking them ever since… looking forward to the OTHER album already completed, the one with eskimo snow on it!
first listened to cLOUDDEAD then when I heard Yoni was doing this I was immediately interested and listened to EE. My friend Enda sent me an album/record entitled “Almost live from Eli’s room” its really good too, not as easy listening as the other two albums, but still as good.