18 DUBLIN GAZETTE 12 April 2018
GOINGOUTOUT
PICKWEEK Hot OF THE
APRIL 16 (MONDAY)
Harry Styles @ 3Arena, €50-€70 We can’t quite say that we’re just wild about Harry – but about two bazillion other people are, with the latest former One Direction man to drop in on Dublin being the ‘cheeky boy’ of the bunch, with his self-titled debut album in tow. Expect screams. (Clock-checking chaperones and patient other halves in tow, we salute you.)
APRIL 12 (THURSDAY) Calum Scott @ The Academy, €19 Music Currents 2018 @ Smock Alley Theatre, €10 A three-day festival of contemporary electronic music comes to Temple Bar, featuring four concerts across the weekend, as well as workshops and talks.
APRIL 13 (FRIDAY) Music Currents 2018 @ Smock Alley Theatre, €10 Walk The Moon @ The Academy, €30 Eve Belle @ Project Arts Centre, €10 Goal Girl @ The Grand Social, €12.50 Bryde @ Whelan’s, €15 Crazy Town @ The Bowery, €15
APRIL 14 (SATURDAY) Music Currents 2018 @ Smock Alley Theatre, €10 Nick JD Hodgson (of Kaiser Chiefs) @ The Grand Social, €17 Francesco Turrisi @ Fumbally Stables Dusky @ District 8, €17
APRIL 15 (SUNDAY) Frank Turner @ The Academy, €27 Folk-punk troubadour Frank Turner sings of England’s soul and his own struggles, and utterly excels live. He brings his ‘Be More Kind’ tour to North Dublin. Fenne Lily @ The Wiley Fox August Wells @ The Workman’s Club, €13 Samarkind, Jailbird + Ophelias @ Whelan’s, €16
APRIL 17 (TUESDAY) Aston Merrygold @ The Button Factory, €20 The Unthanks @ Abbey Theatre, €32 Ruby Sessions @ Doyle’s, €7 We Banjo 3 @ Whelan’s, €16
APRIL 18 (WEDNESDAY) The Unthanks @ Abbey Theatre, €32 Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats @ Olympia Theatre, €30 The Wonder Years @ The Button Factory, €23 Nahko + Trevor Hall @ Whelan’s
Want some brilliant Blues? You need the...
Sprockets
DUBLIN isn’t known for groups of friends clad out in the latest in Blues-inspired charity store chic, focused on producing timeless, harmonised melodies. The Hot Sprockets are out of step with the scene and forging their own path, but evolving into their newly psychedelic phase, they win plaudits simply by being great at what they do... IF YOU heard a track o f t wo o f T h e Ho t Sprockets’ music, and were then asked to stick a pin in a map identifying where they come from, you’d probably stick the point somewhere on the fringes of a Texan city, a spot with plenty of raucous rock influences, but a distinct country twang known for effortless, whisky-bar showmanship. The five-piece actually h a i l f ro m d i f fe re n t corners of Dublin, having spent much of the ir p er fo r ma nce -l ov in g c a re e r e n te r t a i n i n g their own niche with a thunderous live show. They rumble between gigs in an aging Nissan Micra and very much live for their music. Newlyreleased third album, Dream Mover, is the latest
JAMES HENDICOTT
stage in a slow-paced and precisely crafted evolution. Of the new release, multi-instrumentalist Frankie Kelly tells us: “It’s a bit more psychedelic – the production is a real step up from [second album] Brother Nature, and the song writing’s better than the last record. We feel like we’re really evolving as songwriters. “We had a lot more than just the ten songs on the album, but we picked the best ones and spent a lot of time working on them, improving them and developing the sound. Much more went into
it then anything we did before. “There are three writers in the band, so between us we’re always writing at home. Some of the tracks we might look at once and never see again. Others make demo stage and the best make it all the way. There are hundreds of songs. We’ve done threehour setlists of original material before.” As for the image, that’s become the band’s thing. “It’s just our normal attire,” pipes up vocalist Tim Cullen. “It’s just from stuff that influenced us, bands we’re influenced by; mainly 60s and 70s American bands. We wear our best stuff on stage, like going on a date or something. We don’t really pay too much attention to it, but to a certain extent it’s important. You dress up.” Kelly adds: “Years ago, Tim used to work in a vintage clothing store, so he just got sweet clothes for free. We just kind of got mad into the clothes together, and kept on
doing it.” The result can feel like an authentic shift in time and place: The Hot Sprockets wardrobe would be genuinely hard to track down in Dublin, and sits perfectly alongside their sound. As well as their local su c c e s s e s, T h e Ho t Sprockets have also been touring fairly extensively in Spain – their very own ‘big in Japan’ moment. “We’re on playlists with both of their national radio stations, so we get quite a lot of radioplay ove r t h e re, ” Cu l l e n explains. “We got a Spanish release of Brother Nature through a company called Folk Records, so we put two tracks of the Licks From The Vault release on it. “It goes really well out there. We’re b a c k a ga i n this summer, to play a few shows, and
we’ve been a few times now.” For now, though, The Hot Sprockets will be pleasing the local crowd – one they profess a real love for. They sit naturally in the messy realm of dwellers at Wicklow’s wo n d e r f u l l y s h a b by festival, Knockanstockan, with those whose hearts screams for the Blues, and those who simply can’t miss something so effortlessly, raucously entertaining. The Hot Sprockets’ latest, Dream Mover, is out now, and launches at The Button Factory in Temple Bar this Saturday, April 14.