Author Archives: Jay Kenny

Once again I will have to stray from my standard configuration of concert reviews as last night I had an interesting first time experience of a long running Dublin event I was, up till now, unaware of entirely.

The Ruby Sessions is an acoustic night of music that has been done in a small purpose made venue above Doyle’s bar near Trinity College, it happens every single Tuesday and has been on for every Tuesday since April 1999, making this particular weekly event five years older than I am.

It is an entirely acoustic concert, with three unannounced performers each night, people are instructed to remain silent as the venue is small and the only instrumentation is acoustic.

Now I had a little inside information from a mailing list tip off that an artist I’m a fan of and have previously wrote about, Elle Coves, would be there, otherwise I may never have stumbled upon this long running event.

The Alumni of this event are about as prestigious as venues more than twenty times the size, Hozier, Ed Sheeran, Fontaines DC, Joe Elliot of Def Leppard and many, many more.

On this particular evening me and four of my friends arrived into the venue fairly far back in the line which resulted in two of my friends not being able to get a good view of the stage, so if you intend on going to one of these, arrive early, a piece of information I learned all too late.

Me and two of my friends managed to get decent enough spots and the man responsible for putting all of these nights together came out and introduced the first act, Paddy Keyes.

Paddy Keyes is an up and coming Irish musician embarking on a small scale tour later this year, his debut EP Over and Over was the tunes we were in store for. Every artist played four songs and the four from Paddy fared very well on the acoustic, his songs seemed very suited for the kind of intimate show that was put on that evening, surely one to watch.

Next up was the act I was there for, Elle Coves, now I have seen Elle previously in the Academy late last year, and tonight she performed just as well, she filled the room with her voice and even played what was then an unreleased song, “Tightrope”, which came out midnight that night after the show. Elle seems to be adjusting to this gigging lifestyle very well, she even introduced a new instrument to her live repertoire, by playing harmonica on one of her songs, excited to see what comes next for her.

Last up was an act I had yet to hear of, The Ocelots, currently based in Germany, they are a set of Irish twins who play a mixture of acoustic Irish trad music with a very Simon and Garfunkel folk sound, they were both very charismatic on stage and told great stories about how their songs came to them and the inspiration for them, with their new album “Everything, When Said Slowly” they gave us a great mix of songs with some being about love, roommates and some about broader social concepts like their songs “Landlords”, about the replacement of a classic Irish music venue with a hotel. Two great lads which a great ear for catchy banjo riffs and intriguing song concepts and lyric writing.

Overall this event I coincidentally stumbled upon seems like something I should’ve been aware of for years, and I’m all the more sorry I wasn’t, I’ll be sure to be attending quite a few more of these over the coming months and years and I’m excited to support a good old homegrown Irish music venue.

Next Up: James Blunt, 3arena, 6/3/2025

My second concert during my trip to Manchester was to see The Rifles in the interestingly named venue “Gorilla”.

The Rifles are a lesser known force in the British indie music scene of the 2000s and have just recently released their new album “Love Your Neighbour”.

Their music is a blend of strong rhythm guitar backing and cheerful singing and overall is a great time to be listening to it, reminds me a lot of what I’d argue is their Irish equivalent, The Frank and Walters.

An incredibly enjoyable concert in a rather small venue but with a great crowd who were genuinely into the music.

Stage Setup: 7/10, a stage setup that does what it needs to do but nothing particularly extravagant or over the top which worked well with the venue size.

Support: 9/10, support started almost instantly after the doors times, with a singer called Tony Mac being up first, Tony Mac has an outstanding voice and a great mind for songwriting and gave a great intimate show to the early arrivers. Next up was a rather new band, who only currently have 3 songs out, Sunspells. They were an absolute delight and even with their short catalogue they absolutely nailed it, an amazing band who know how to play together very well.

Merchandise: 6/10, a decent selection of merch including t shirts, scarves and plenty of signed memorabilia, but nothing that really struck me as well made or well designed, very simple t shirts with no dates on the back and with a very standard build quality on them, the support band Sunspells had merch to which was quite cheap and surprisingly higher quality than the main band. The merchandise here is saved by the low price and wide variety of items on sale.

Crowd: 9.5/10, a near perfect crowd, everyone knowing nearly every song and giving it their all tune after tune. A crowd of people who are just genuinely happy to be there and to enjoy the music, some people around the edges of the crowd didn’t seem too into it though, which loses it the half point.

Artist Performance: 7/10, a great performance from the lads in The Rifles, but nothing stratospheric in quality, sounds near exact to the studio recordings but lacks that bit of showmanship that truly makes a great performance.

Overall: 8/10, a very pleasant concert experience with a great crowd and a great feel throughout the night, some points of improvement could’ve been made but you could say that about nearly every show, all in all it was a grand night.

Up Next: Elle Coves, Ruby Sessions, 11/2/25

This concert will be the one most difficult for me to rank, I feel I’m obliged to say that were it not for my girlfriends obsession with K-Pop there would be an approximately 0% chance I would ever attend this concert of my own volition, but alas, I would do anything for love, and I would do that (checkmate Meat Loaf). That being said I was about as aware of everything as a shark would be at a scrabble competition.

To start with, I do not find their music much appealing, I am generally a fan of rock or metal music, but I am partial to pop sometimes, but not this particular brand. I will try to review this from an objective view and from the perspective of someone who would enjoy this concert.

I must start with the fact they did put on an amazing show, maybe not a necessarily talented musical performance, but the show aspects of it were incredible. Interspersed throughout the songs were small sections of concept acting including a giant tentacle monster taking over a portion of the stage. The choreography was probably the highlight of the show, the immense length of the choreography is genuinely baffling to me, a full 2 and half hour show with all 8 band members having unique choreography sets throughout the show is no easy task, and a very impressive one at that.

Stage Setup: 9/10, a wonderfully set up stage with multiple inflatable props rising and falling throughout the show, the centrepiece of the A stage was a metal tower through which the band entered, along with a rising and falling floor on the B stage which they came out from also.

Support: N/A, there was no support at this show.

Merchandise: 6.5/10, I have to say the merch range was extensive and surprisingly high quality, everything from bags to jumpers to full tracksuit sets to key rings to photo cards and all manner in between, which may make you wonder why the rating isn’t higher. The price, my god the price, it is by far the most expensive merch I have seen yet, my girlfriend purchased one tour jumper and one high quality drawstring bag, for 145 euro, and that was the discounted price from buying them together. Another issue was that they sold some of the merch via a pop up shop available in the city before the show, but you had to use the app, and hundreds of people showed up and predictably the app crashed, and it took about twenty minutes of crashing and almost buying to finally purchase something.

Crowd: 6/10, the crowd around us in the seating was very half and half, but the half that were into it were extremely into it, the standing section on the other hand, for fear of sounding like a man four times my age, they all just stood there with their phones out, no swaying, no dancing, just still with phones out.

Artist Performance: 9/10, to be fair to the lads, they did well, from what I can gather they were singing live, without any major vocal correcting effects, and their choreography as previously stated was next to none.

Overall: 8/10, for a fan of the genre and of the music this concert would have been an amazing experience and even I, a rock elitist, can acknowledge the talent and logistics that go into such an amazing show.

Up Next: The Rifles, Gorilla, 31/1/25

This blog post is a very important one for me, it is arguably the most prestigious concert to be hosted in the town of Athy since the days of the 60s, when Johnny Cash played the same venue.

For this particular post, I will be straying from my standard criteria that I have used in my previous posts as I believe this concert is impossible to rank among them due to its unique circumstances. Including, the wide variety of acts, the location and other factors.

This concert was put on as part of the Brigid festival in Kildare, with other events such as a similar concert hosted in Kildare town.

This was not a concert I was expecting to go to, I was actually away when it had been announced and due to it not being announced through the normal channels I did not hear about it until it sold out. But considering I am not a man who backs down at the words “sold out“ I managed to get myself some tickets.

I only managed to secure myself a pair of tickets two days before the actual event, for an incredibly reasonable price of €23.50.

The lineup for this concert is one of the most stacked lineups that I have seen outside of major festivals in this country.

Starting the concert off was a group of young musicians from a local school with their act entitled MOA, which stands for made of athy. This act played covers of songs made famous by people or bands with relation to the town of Athy, included in this were some of the young people in my local youth club which I work in, and I have to say I was incredibly proud of their amazing showmanship, musical talent and spectacular control of the crowd.

Next came on the first headline act of 5, yes, of 5, Robert Grace. Robert Grace is a man I have went to see before, and whom I have met twice now, and all times he has been incredibly friendly and warm to talk to. He did a set of some of his most popular hits to a crowd of people who, I imagine, most of wouldn’t know him, and he did absolutely brilliant, talking to some people I knew after the show they were all happily surprised at his songwriting talent, musical and singing abilities.

Next up came a classic of anything based in Athy to do with music should have, our very own Jack L. Growing up about a two minute walk from the venue he is incredibly popular worldwide within his own scene. I have to admit, I would have never listened to him and still may never will, but I can only applaud his performance at the concert, an incredible showman with an incredible voice, a great storyteller between songs and a great back and forth relationship with the crowd. He finished up with a cover of “Folsom Prison Blues”, in honour of the concert played by Johnny Cash there all those years ago.

Next up was a rarity in the live music scene, Danny O’Reilly, lead singer of the coronas performing solo, a very rare occurrence to see him performing without the full band. And what a delightful rarity it was, Danny’s musical ability and amazing singing and diction delighted the crowd, a large amount of which seemed to be present for him mainly. Including a beautiful acoustic version toy “Heroes or Ghosts” partially performing in the Irish language was an immense crowd pleaser and great way to finish off his set.

Next up came an act I was only semi-accustomed to, Amble. A new Irish-trad/folk trio from the midlands of Ireland. I had heard rumouring of them from here or there, one of my friends saw them in a lesser slot of electric picnic last year and said they were great, I’d heard about their string of Irish shows including three sold out nights at Dublins Olympia, which is no easy feat. And by god did they deliver on this small reputation they had built up in my head, they sang just three songs interspersed with stories about the band and their songwriting and each and every song could rank up in the greatest songs I have heard live. Only once before have I been truly floored by a piece of music live (The Dave Matthews Band and their song Gravedigger live) until that faithful Sunday. The song “Mary’s Pub” absolutely stumped me live, an absolutely amazing piece of music, incredible instrumentation and incredible lyrics, I am still in awe of that performance.

And last but certainly not least, the biggest name on the list, and another rarity to see perform solo without his band, Bob Geldof. It was genuine insanity to hear that Bob Geldof was playing in Athy, a town with less than 10,000 people, widely regarded as nothing but a commuter town, and Bob Geldof himself was to be there. Bob delivered an amazing set with his hits from The Boomtown Rats “Rat Trap” and “I Don’t Like Mondays”, and some of his solo work like the delightfully Irish sounding “Young and Sober” and finishing with a poetic reading of the lyrics followed by performance of “What’s so Funny about Peace, Love, and Understanding.

This concert is hard to rank among my greatest concerts due to the sheer abnormality of it, but after sitting with it for the past few days I think I can easily rank it as possibly the best concert I have been to.

A combination of the venue, the performers, the local crowd and plain to see immense talent stuffed into a sports hall in Athy is something I have never seen, and maybe will never see again.

With this being the second major gig in this town following Johnny Marrs performance in June of last year I hope this is the start of something great for the town of Athy, both concerts were a huge success and were both sold out, I wonder who will come along next, time will tell.

For my last concert of the year I finished off with a small intimate gig, perhaps the smallest I have been to yet. Which is never a downside, I am a huge fan of small gigs.

Rising Spanish, but Irish residing, pop star Elle Coves is just coming off the back of her first EP “Selfishly Inclined” released earlier this year, an EP with upbeat catchy pop hooks and some somber and sweet songs of love and of heartbreak.

The concert ran in the basement of the Academy, in their smaller venue The Academy 2, which was a surprisingly well made and pleasant venue.

Elle opened her show with a personally favourite of mine “Born to Lose”, a great upbeat pop song with an insanely catchy chorus that gets imbedded deep in your mind upon any listening of it.

She continued with the majority of her released catalogue, as she has not released much as of yet in comparison to more established artists, but don’t underestimate the power of that back catalog of songs she has.

Her cover of “You’re so Vain” was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. A classic song which she breathed new life into with her own unique voice.

Her performance of her song “Don’t” stands out to me as a highlight of the concert, a beautiful song lyrically, and with very challenging notes to hit in the chorus, she delivered it immaculately, as if it was ripped straight from the EP. For the beginning of her song she even did it purely acoustic, no amplifiers or microphones, which worked perfectly with the venue, everyone being as quiet as they could and her unamplified voice filling the room.

Stage Setup: 7/10, for what little stage room they had to work with, they made it very homely and endearing, with string lights hung up around the stage atop red curtains gave it an intimate and cosy feeling.

Support: 8/10, Niamh McCrystal provided the support, treating us to a decent amount of unreleased music, with great lyricism and singing ability.

Merchandise: 6/10, the only merchandise available after the show was posters, which normally would fetch a rather low rating, but Elle herself was at the merch stall signing each one, taking pictures and even signing the posters with a personal touch, asking for everyone’s name to write her message to.

Crowd: 7/10, a very inactive crowd but that was mostly due to the immersion of the music, everyone was enthralled by the performance and seemed elated to be there.

Artist Performance: 9/10, Elle has the voice to fill arenas twenty times the size of this small venue, and in time I’m sure she will be filling venues much, much bigger.

Overall: 8/10, a lively and lovely intimate gig, delivered by an incredibly up and coming artist, she’s one to watch, she’ll be filling the 3arena before we know it.

Up Next: ATEEZ, AO Arena Manchester, 30/01/2025

Writing this on a train to Kildare as it has just turned to Sunday the 15th December.

The Frank and Walters delivered another stellar yearly Whelans gig. An intimate venue that you wouldn’t expect to be as high energy as it was.

Before and during the concert I met many familiar faces from last year’s Whelans gig who were all absolutely pleasant to talk to, including a couple travelling from Ipswich and a woman travelling from Toronto to see them.

The cork pop rock outfit absolutely tore the crowd in Whelans, I don’t think there was a point I stopped jumping and moshing, as I’m writing this my legs feel as if they have fallen off of me out of pure exhaustion.

Hits like “Colours” and “Fashion Crisis hits New York” had the crowd jumping and singing, others like “Landslide” and “How can I Exist” had the crowd emotional and also still jumping and singing, and the monumental Irish classic “After All” had the crowd in an absolute craze.

The Frank and Walters proved once again why they are Irelands premier statesmen of the indie scene, I’ve never seen a crowd more excited, more friendly and more wild. 

As an aside from the performance, talking to the band after the show all of them were so kind and delightful to talk to, I got the lot of them to sign my first edition cassette of “Trains, Boats and Planes”, and got the lead singer Paul to sign my t shirt.

Overall one of the most energetic, emotional and enjoyable concert experiences I’ve had in a long time.

Stage Setup: 8/10, Simple but effective stage setup delivered a nice intimate yet energetic gig.

Band Performance: 10/10, the band are extremely tight and extremely on it night after night, sounding identical to the records and still somehow unique as a live experience.

Support: 10/10, Kilkenny outfit The Souther Fold delivered pure southern country bliss (or at least as southern in the country that Kilkenny is), and are one of the best supports I may have ever seen.

Merchandise: 11/10, still my favourite piece of concert merchandise of all time is my blue franks t shirt with the phrase “Who’s the Langer in the Franks T Shirt” written on the back, and this year they one upped it, not only did I pick up a Who’s the Langer T Shirt in another colour, they had their new 2025 Cork City FC away kit Jersey with the Frank and Walters written on the back collar and After All written around the sleeves.

Crowd: 11/10, The best crowd I’ve been in at a concert. There is genuinely nothing I can say to describe it, you’ll just have to go next time.

Overall: 10/10, The Frank and Walters have now solidified what will become my yearly Christmas tradition of attending their Whelans gig, or maybe even their Cyprus Avenue gig next.

Up Next: Elle Coves, The Academy 2, 21/12/24

On the 29th of November I attended Vampire Weekend at the 3Arena in Dublin.

Vampire weekend, a monument in the early 2010s indie scene, with hits like A-punk and Campus, and hit albums like Contra and Father of the Bride played a large yet somehow intimate feeling show in the 3arena

The band started as a 3 piece on stage in-front of a giant banner covering the entire behind of the stage with the bands name on it, just bass guitar and drums, all the while you could hear other instruments being played in the background, eventually a few songs in the banner fell and revealed the full band and then the show really kicked off.

This tour was in support of their new album “Only God was Above us”, with a large amount of that album represented on the set list. Some standouts of the set include the wonderfully written “Harmony Hall” and the absolutely flooring live version of “Capricorn” that blows you away with its harshness yet beauty live, and of course the ever energetic “A-Punk”, which had the crowd lifted off their feet and even saw most of the seated section standing.

The highlight of the show, though, was at the encore when the band came out and took requests of literally anything, the crowd scrambled to put their phones up with an artist or song written on their screen. The crowd was treated with such hits as the sing along Van Morrison classic “Brown-eyed Girl” and the upbeat track “Hotel Yorba” by the White Stripes, and of course the beautiful but all too short rendition of “Fairytale of New York”, arguably the greatest Christmas song ever written.

Overall it was a great night out, with a wonderful and kind crowd, I had great chats outside with some random man I have never met about the depth of some of their lyrics, and how this show compared to other they have done. Something should also be said about the support act, Ye Vagabonds, who delivered a very somber and emotional support set for the show.

Stage Setup: 8/10, very well set up especially with the backdrops dropping and changing, great light work as-well.

Band performance: 10/10, one of the tightest and most Insync bands I have ever seen, their ability to play full rendition of random requests is unreal.

Support: 7/10, a good addition to the gig but not a band I would see myself getting into.

Merchandise: 7/10, decent selection of merch, personally bought a grey tour long sleeve, designs not anything spectacular but surprisingly reasonable priced merch (which isn’t saying a lot considering the price of merch these days).

Crowd: 8/10, very active and very kind crowd, got talking to many people during and after the show who were all delightful, although the crowd wasn’t as great during the new album material as most of them weren’t there for that.

Overall: 8/10, a very good concert by a band I would absolutely consider seeing again, in a way that feels very hard to describe, it was the most “concert” concert I have been to in a while.

Next up: The Frank and Walters, Whelans, 14/12/24