While W&H are lucky to live in a breathtakingly beautiful place, it must be said that our primary base, Schull in West Cork, is hardly a hotbed of great Rock'n'Roll at the best of times. The area has enviable natural beauty, food and drink to kill for and a largely relaxed and laid back ambience, yet us underground music heads are generally forced to travel at least as far as De Barra's in Clonakilty to get our musical kicks.
Thus, the coming of the inaugural 'Livestock' Festival provides us with a reason to run up the flags, not least when the line-up contains some seriously tasty home-grown talent. Throw in a mighty fine on-site barbecue, a convivial atmosphere, an enjoyably eclectic selection of sounds from the DJ and excellent organisation all round and we have something to be truly proud of on our own doorstep at last.
First up on an impressively diverse bill are JILL D & GILL. Kildare's Jill Deering (Jill Deering on Myspace) is a veteran of the Ruby Sessions, has supported Tim Easton on tour in the UK and has sung on demo tracks for hip-hop producers in New York, while Stace Gill is a Dublin native whose Myspace page (Stace Gill on Myspace) presents tracks with a dark, electro-tinged bent. They initially treat us to a melancholic acoustic workout, sometimes a little reminiscent of Freakwater and pull off a risky medley of REM'S 'Losing My Religion' and Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams'. They really engage when they bring on the loops and DAT for a couple of darkly effective trip-hoppy tracks, of which 'The Turn' really stars with its' delicate music-box motifs and Gill's throaty, Beth Gibbons-esque vocal. Lovely.
Next up is singer/ songwriter AIDAN FARRELLY. He's not on the advertised bill and tells us he's “been thrown in at the last minute.” He's a pro, though, and despite a fetching Motorhead T-shirt and a past with Metal contenders McBain, he has a convincing, Glen Hansard-ish rasp of a vocal and writes intriguing songs like 'I Would Surrender', apparently about Danish girls beating him up. Well that's something which is always liable to set you apart from the pack. Good man Aidan.
Clonakilty's SETMAKER, meanwhile, come with an enviable local following, mostly resplendant in eye-catching pink T-shirts. Dubbed 'The Pink Ladies', they make almost as much noise as the band, not to mention providing a memorable visual spectacle. The objects of their desire (Setmaker on Myspace) have an EP ('Are You Here For this?') now available and are impossibly youthful veterans from De Barra's and the Clonakilty Guitar Festival. They acquit themselves admirably whatever. Ciaran Calnan and Aidan Hayes are no-nonsense co-frontmen and their guitars mesh beautifully, while violinist Dolcie Keogh brings a similar dimension to their sound to the one Amanda Brown brought to The Go-Betweens. Of the songs themselves, 'Holding On' especially stands out, full of tension and release and one of those yearning choruses you can't miss with. They are not likely to remain merely local heroes indefinitely.
|
Great though Setmaker are, it's NOVELLA HERMOSA who really make this writer's afternoon. Led by Wexford man Luke Cosgrave (also the super-talented fiddler with Ian Whitty & The Exchange), they are bursting with the sort of tough'n'tuneful guitar pop this writer hears far too little of these days. Even the briefest exposure to the songs on their Myspace page ( Novella Hermosa online) is enough to tell you there's something exciting afoot here and several of the songs they treat us to today – the eminently catchy 'Broken Glass' and 'Look What You've Done”s bittersweet plea to respect your fellow man – are eloquent, wise and come with hooks you can't get out of your head with a crowbar. Even allowing for some stiff competition, they are the rising stars of the afternoon for me and I can't wait to see them again soon.
Following that isn't going to be easy, but Dubliners THE BARLEY MOB have a decent stab at it as afternoon slides slowly into evening. Peddling deceptively sunny, reggae-influenced pop, their upbeat tunes are allied with militant social commentary, while self-explanatory titles like 'Mr. Government Man' show they are rightly pissed off about the current state of things, both socially and economically.
Singer/ guitarist Adam Daly is from the Christy Dignam school of hard knocks, though he will probably garner Damien Dempsey comparisons simply because his band have a natural white-boy skank to their sound. That they are playing reggae without a bass player seems like a contradiction in terms, though apparently they normally have a bassist (Johnnie McCormick) who's the invisible man today.
Still, they have enough front to get away with it, leaning on both a well-chosen cover of Bob Marley's 'Waiting In Vain' and a defiant, anti-recession anthem called 'We Go The Distance' (listen to it on Rising Stars website) which will surely be ripping up radios before the summer's out. That they hold their own against the World Cup on the big screen inside demonstrates their staying power and I hope this won't be the last time we see 'em down here.
Livestock Festival on Facebook
Livestock Festival on Myspace
|
