Tonight (Thursday) sees the beginning of a hectic few days of gigs here in Belfast. God bless you students for making the promoters get busy and ensure September and October are overflowing with top-quality musical entertainment. Though it’s a measure of things at the minute that two of the gigs we’re talking about are made up exclusively of Irish bands.
First up, Two Step at the Limelight is back tonight, with a sweet triple bill of Panama Kings, Cashier No.9 and Colenso Parade. PKs and Cashier, especially, are two of the most exciting bands to come of of Northern Ireland in recent years, and both are building up to their next single releases. Rumour has it, there could be some kind of super-special collaboration going on during Panama Kings’ headlining set, too. Exciting.
Tomorrow night, Canadian indie band (and former Unicorns members) Islands play Auntie Annie’s with Munch Munch and the lovely Two Door Cinema Club. We’d call them Bangor’s finest, but Kowalski might beat us up.
Then on Saturday, if you’re still standing, comes the main course. If you’ll forgive us for blowing our own trumpet here, Club AU WILL DESTROY YOU. The mighty LaFaro, BATS and Desert Hearts bring the noise, with Gregz McCann and the FAUX DJs manning the decks in the other rooms. A fiver for all that, oh yes. In case you haven’t seen them in a while, LaFaro have expanded to a hairy, sweaty four-piece since the departure of bassist Anna. She will be missed, but new boys Herb and Dave have upped the bloke quotient to quite spectacular proportions.
Finally, dessert comes courtesy of Fujiya & Miyagi, who we (alright then, I) have been banging on about something shocking recently. The Brighton foursome have just released their third album, Lightbulbs, and it’s a corker. They are a great live band as well, so make sure not to miss them. Support comes from the aforementioned Kowalski .
So there you have it. Four belters in four nights. You might as well forget about work/uni/school next week. It just ain’t going to happen.
