Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CULTURAL PARADISE
PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER TEN YEARS WATSON AT THE OH YEAH CENTRE
It’s Culture Night in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter tonight, the city’s biggest single celebration of music, art, theatre, performance and other amusing randomness. We say ‘single’ celebration, but it’s a sum of over 300 parts taking place in 150 locations all within a few hours, right across the city and, of course, everything is totally free.
Our compadre Rigsy has covered off some of the quirky unmissable bits of the evening that you can devour in a few pages time, but we’ll dive into a selection of the music and afterhours club stuff, of which there’s some absolute crackers.
The Bear and Doll in Little Donegal Street, formerly The Frames complex, Belfast’s newest offering, is ideally located to be at the heart of all the action and given their all-star DJ line up throughout the day, that’s exactly what they intend to to.
From 3pm-10pm, the cream of the city’s DJ talent will entrain the revellers with sounds of balearic, house, groove and disco. Expect sets from Belfast Music Club, Loop DJS, Twitch and Timmy Stewart. The Night Institute aka Timmy & Jordan, will play the afterparty in adjoining club The Art Department.
Right around the corner is Boombox who are hosting the amazing Ana Martronic of Scissor Sisters fame. Listeners to her BBC Radio 2 show ‘Disco Devotion’ will know just how passionate Ana is for her disco & synth music and she’ll be playing alongside resident Jupiter 4.
Aether & Echo are hosting another of their acclaimed Block Parties from 6pm to 11pm just outside the venue, with an afterparty in OCD from 11pm to 3am. Block Party DJS will include Mark Blair, Caolán Patrick and Eddy Kennedy, before the excellent Chris Hanna and Marion Hawkes take over inside.
The Beringer, right opposite Voodoo in Fountain Street, has a very special event lined up with the ridiculously talented Marc Kirkbride. He’ll be delivering grace DJ set dedicated to all the fallen heroes who have brought magic into the world. Marc has been building this set for for well over a decade and has lovingly built up a collection of his own heroes. Expect music from Echo and The Bunnymen, David Bowie, Prince, The Doors, New Order, Ron Hardy, Joy Division, DJ Mehdi, 80s Soundtracks, Roxy Music, INXS, Eazy E and a while host of others. It all kicks off at 10pm and The Beringer will have a full bar to help loosen the dancing joints.
And finally, the mighty Shine are back in Limelight 1 with the incredible Daniel Avery making a long over due return to Belfast. Daniel is one of the UK’S most forward-thinking DJS and producers who earned his stripes as Andrew Weatherall’s studio assistant. Local party starters Schmutz are on support for this one. This will jam-packed so best get round early to avoid disappointment. You know you’re getting on a bit when that album you bought, you know the one you really loved, just a couple of years back, is actually 10 years old. “Whatya mean 10 years old, I’m still playing it in the car ffs – see, I’m down with the kids.”
To Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, then, the Brooklyn and Pennsylvania-based band who mark the 10th anniversary of their celebrated album Some Loud Thunder with a gig at Belfast’s Empire Music Hall.
On its release in 2007, Some Loud Thunder wasn’t a massive departure from their earlier work. In fact, it was much the same in many regards yet at the same time, as different as can be.
For a start it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, quite the coup for a fairly niche, strung-out, f***ed-up lo-if outfit from hipsterville. Second, it found favour among some of the world’s coolest pop stars – David Bowie and David Byrne were known to be fans. Third, and what really set it apart from its predecessors, and its peers for that matter, was the production by Mercury Rev’s Dave Fridmann, alt-rock’s Phil Spector (and the man who helped make The Flaming Lips the psych-rock behemoths they are today).
Where the eponymous debut album was raw and immediate, Some Loud Thunder was multi-layered and experimental, but all held together with tight songwriting and frontman Alec Ounsworth’s strained vocal style. It’s a great album – and sounds as fresh and curious today as it did when it came out. Ten f***ing years ago.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah play Some Loud Thunder in full – along with all the other tunes you eant to hear – at the Empire Music Hall, Belfast, on May 19. Tickets are £19.50, available from the venue, from all Ticketmaster outlets and www. ticketmaster. ie and their 24 hour ticketline on 0844 277 4455 from 10am today. Fans of maudlin singersongwriters could do worse than checking out Lewis Watson who plies his trade in Belfast tomorrow night. The 24-year-old from Oxfordshire has a knack for the “brutally honest and achingly intimate” and will bare his young soul before fans at the Oh Yeah Centre. Tickets £10 plus booking fee from www. shine.net, www.ticketmaster. ie, Katy’s Bar & Ticketmaster outlets. There might be a few on the door too...