comedy
CRAIC DEALER
to us’. Now, there isn’t a viable other system to hand at the minute but I think people are struggling with the idea that we’ve ended up in a situation where banks own everybody’s houses. How did we end up like that?”
Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan talks to Baz McAlister about taking time out from his ‘world tours’ of the Emerald Isle to whip Down Under for some craic.
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ommy Tiernan is one of those rare comedians, more philosopher than funnyman. Sure, the jokes come thick and fast, but they’re woven from experience and plumb deep notions: death, love, sex, religion, identity. One of the Galway-based 44-year-old’s favourite subjects is what it means to be Irish, especially since the Celtic Tiger lost its roar and the economic boom of the ‘90s in Ireland collapsed. Tiernan’s Australian tour is titled Stray Sod, recalling a mythological Irish concept. “A stray sod is something that you stand on in a field, that makes you disoriented, so my
music
notion is, could Ireland be the stray sod of the world? Could there be something so totally not in tune with the rest of the planet about our country that encourages that? People here no longer know one end of an economy from the other, so this is a lamentation about that – a desire for strangeness, a refusal to see the world in purely economical terms. Money is ugly. I think it’s left a really bad taste in people’s mouths here that we’re suffering economically. I think what’s going on in Ireland now is that a lot of people are thinking, ‘Hang on, this isn’t right. This [capitalist] system can’t be working given what it’s doing
Tiernan gets out to all the usual international comedy festivals, but has a slavish devotion to his countrymen. That’s why he fills the time between with his ‘World Tours’ of the counties of Ireland, playing small venues, driving from town to town, off the beaten track. “It’s a great way for me to work,” he says, on the eve of his ‘World Tour of Leitrim’. “When I’m doing press for these shows, it’s local papers like the Leitrim Observer or the Meath Chronicle. This Australian tour, I’m doing national press and it’s almost like there’s a degree of importance to it. But doing regional stuff, it’s wonderful and normal and ordinary and gentle. But it’s challenging in terms of stand-up – you’re going to places where the audience are delighted you’ve come because nobody else comes to their town. Maybe a C&W singer passes through every now and again but not a comedian. So they bring that energy to the show, of being excited that you’re there. But you’re definitely in their country and they let you know really quickly if you’re not up to scratch. It’s very good, creatively, for my stand-up.” One of the more memorable spots Tiernan recently played is a pub in Waterford called Henry Downes – a cavernous old place with, seemingly unwisely, its own rifle range. “I don’t know under what vision giving people guns when they’re drunk is a good idea. They make their own whiskey in that pub as well, which they’re very happy to let you buy. What could possibly go wrong?” WHEN & WHERE: WHEN & WHERE: 1 Nov, Riverside Theatre
INSIDIOUS POP Fake voices, isolation, carnivale grotesquerie – Philadelphia’s Man Man know no boundaries. Frontman Ryan Kattner ushers Brendan Telford into their heady world.
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ver the course of four albums, idiosyncratic rock collective Man Man have crafted a sonic world steeped in warped variation. Steadfast in their convictions of subversive lyricism, and inhabiting their vignettes with garish brushstrokes, the band defy categorisation simply because the fluidity of their music leaves nothing to hang a label to. It’s all weirdly immersive, continuing with On Oni Pond, an album that the band has stated is both a natural progression from 2011’s Life Fantastic and a musical reboot. Ryan Kattner (who immediately breaks the ice by speaking in an intentionally ridiculous deep voice) maintains that it’s the contradiction inherent within the band’s aesthetic that continues to fuel the band’s seemingly boundless propensity for creativity. “It’s a natural progression because I constantly evolve, which helps when not feeling bogged down by what people’s expectations are of what you should or could be,” Kattner explains. “To evolve is to stay relevant, to remain hungry, to force challenges upon yourself.” This conscious shift in focus on the construction of music mirrors Kattner’s shift in emotional weight over the past few years, resulting in a hitherto unseen restrictive veil being lifted. “[Life Fantastic] was written in a pretty bad place, whilst On Oni Pond was written with my drummer
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Chris (Powell),” Kattner explains. “By stepping away from bouncing ideas off of four guys, the intimacy of working with a partner allows you to take stock more wholeheartedly. I didn’t want to gravitate towards the personal world that the last record inhabited, and the reality of the situation was that Chris was the only one who wanted to write songs with me. Plus we had decided that if the songs didn’t come by the end of the summer, we might have to go our separate ways. It was a terrifying thought, and made us put the blinkers on. It was like, ‘Fuck it, let’s make a great record’.
It’s not like we have 401K or mortgages; we have nothing to lose. If nobody likes it, fuck ‘em.” On Oni Pond encapsulates the fearlessness, intellect and absurdity that pervades the band. The sequencing of the tracks swings from carnivalesque jeers to jaunty eclecticism, the musical intricacies reflecting the juxtaposition between melody and subject matter, and Kattner sas that he is only getting started. “I get really bored with one-dimensionality; we are not onedimensional beings, so why should music be? Why can’t a song break your heart, make you laugh, contain nightmarish imagery, be a children’s story – why can’t one song embody all these things, and still be catchy and poppy? That’s the insidious nature of the lot of our songs; they are catchy in really sneaky ways. I feel like has congealed into something special here. I feel like an overzealous father showing everyone photos of his hideous kids. They are beautiful to me, promise.” WHAT: On Oni Pond (Anti-/Warner)