All posts in j. Music concerts

14 Aug

John Grant, Galway Arts Festival

In a. Galway,j. Music concerts by admin / August 14, 2015 / 0 Comments

John Grant, Galway Arts Festival

John Grant played The Big Top tent at the 2015 Galway Arts Festival; he was bumped up to the main act when Sinead O Connor had to cancel. I’m a big fan of John Grant so was delighted to be lucky enough to obtain a Press Pass for his concert. The only downside was the all photographers have to leave the pit after 3 songs; for 2 of the 3 songs John Grant sat at a piano!

The first photo is one my favourite I’ve taken in a long time. John Grant isn’t your shiny, polished musician; he’s endured many tough times including hardship, illness, homophobia, addiction and heartbreak. To me this photo represents John Grant laid bare, pure blackness around him (could be the hardships that he’s endured) opening his soul.

John Grant Galway

John Grant Galway Arts Festival

This photo I took from the back of The Big Top (the venue) and the crowd in the foreground make the photo for me.

John Grant at Galway Arts Festival

The last photo is one I couldn’t resist adding; he has a song called Outer Space this photo fits it perfectly I think!

John Grant Outer Space

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the great works of John Grant he’s a song of his, the lyrics are an example of his sharp,dry wit.

06 Mar

John Grant live in Galway (GMF)

In j. Music concerts by admin / March 6, 2014 / 0 Comments

John Grant played a very memorable gig to a sold out Róisín Dubh in Galway last night. He gave a thrilling and touching performance; honest, bare songs which let us look into his world of pain, emotion and hurt. John Grant is gay and was diagnosed wtih HIV positive and and many of his songs deal with former lovers, the struggles of being gay.

Roisin Dubh was the perfect venue for a John Grant gig; the audience stands two feet from the stage which makes his intimate songs more touching. John Grant also played some more lively songs, heavy on electronics and synthesizers, especally the song Glacier, where the music represents “a glacier moving through you, and carving out deep valleys.”

GMF is a John Grant song. (You should know what GMF stands for)

20 Aug

Singing- Steve Wall of The Stunning

In d. People & Animals,j. Music concerts by admin / August 20, 2013 / 2 Comments

Steve Wall of The Stunning rocking on the main stage at The Volvo Ocean Race festival in Galway City

Post title ‘singing’ is a song title from the great, great band The Tindersticks

17 Apr

Come on Feel The Lemonheads

In d. People & Animals,j. Music concerts by admin / April 17, 2012 / 1 Comment

Last night I was at The Lemonheads gig in Roisin Dubh in Galway. They were playing their most successful album It’s a Shame About Ray in its entirety. The album is only 33 minutes long so obviously they needed to play some other material. Evan Dando began the night with about 30 minutes of acoustic material, then joined by the rest of the band for It’s a Shame About Ray songs.

It was an enjoyable night and my first time to see The Lemonheads live. There’s a growing trend for bands to tour playing their ‘main/most widely known’ album in its entirety and I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s a good opportunity to hear an album that I listened and loved (still do) in my youth. Gigs like these bring out the older fans and newer ones who have only discovered the bands in recent times and are normally packed with enthusiastic fans singing along to every song.

I met two students, Maria and Owen who are new fans. Flash photograph isn’t allowed and Maria had a compact camera with the back screen broken so couldn’t turn off the flash. She snapped a few quick photos with the flash on, Owen was the ‘better for wear’ and they may or may not have been asked to leave (ah, young kids…)

The lighting in Roisin Dubh is awful for photography- dark red lights so even with my very fast lens (f1.4) I struggled to get any good shots. These are all unprocessed (it’s 1am now, I just want to post up some immediately). I’ll post up some more later this evening hopefully.