20.11.12
arts@collegetribune.ie
5
ExitMusic – Whelan’s Kathryn Toolan reviews the husband and wife team’s latest live offerings
N
obody was prepared for what happened in Whelan’s last weekend. Hushed voices and murmured conversations were cut short by the sounds of “The Sea”, the opening track of ExitMusic’s set list. Without a doubt one of their strongest tracks, the crowd were enraptured within seconds. A small crowd, it has to be said, but one that would soon be rewarded for their dedication to good music. Hailing from Brooklyn, ExitMusic are a two piece band made up of Alexsa Palladino and Devon Church. A husband and wife team, Palladino performs the vocal duties of the band (along with an assortment of other instruments), while Church accompanies on guitar, with an odd smack of a drum here and there. ExitMusic may be small in numbers but they make up for this fact wholeheartedly with presence and noise. Their debut album Passage was released earlier in 2012 and they have been touring worldwide since. The tracks they performed were from said album, a musical cacophony of epic proportions. They have been compared to
Icelandic band Sigur Ros and the similarities are present: both are utterly sensational in style, but they are poles apart. The brilliance of the album “Passage” is only amplified when performed live. “The Modern Age” followed “The Sea”. For such a tiny human being, Palladino has an impressive set of lungs. Whispered lyrics suddenly erupted without warning, transforming into an ethereal wailing, tingling any spine in a 100 metre radius. “White Noise” and “The Night”, both from Passage, were effortless in performance. The performance never lagged, never lost inertia, it flowed with a distinctively elegant ease. The audience remained in a state of awe for the entire 45 minute set. The band itself moved around the stage with an awkward ease, at one point Church used a violin bow to produce the distortive yet aurally pleasing accompaniment to “The Night”, a showcase of his talent and individualism, while Palladino took up her guitar, after several tracks on the keyboards. The highlight of the night was
without a doubt the final song –the title track of the album Passage. For over 8 minutes, Church and Palladino showcased their abun-
Passion Pit - Olympia Theatre Ciaran Breslin ruminates on Passion Pit’s performance in Heineken’s Greenspheres
I
n the second of Heineken’s Green Sphere dates to take part before the New Year, Dublin’s Oympia Theatre welcomed the triumphant return of everyone’s favourite electro-pop outfit Passion Pit to Ireland. The Green Sphere project represents a fantastic and eclectic series of gigs which last year saw Glasvegas, Simian Mobile Disco, The Drums and Wild Beasts all play a series of gigs around the country, while this year still has Jack Beats and The Magician to come. And best of all, in a particularly student friendly move, it’s free. So student friendly in fact, that I only found out I had a ticket forty minutes before the show started, when it turned out my sister had a couple spare. So, after managing to persuade the bouncers that a screen shot of a ticket on an I-phone represented a valid reason to let us in, we were climbing the winding stairs to the upper balcony of the Olympia. The Olympia is an extremely nice venue, but perhaps not the best place to enjoy the dancey electro stylings of a band like Passion Pit. The auditorium is all seated and divided into three tiers of ornate galleries so we at the top were in a curious position of awkwardly looking down on the stage at a band
who are much more suited to be playing at the head of a big dancefloor. The strange mood was perhaps best summed up by a moment when Michael Angelekos from the stage joyously encouraged us to “Stand the fuck up!”, a suggestion tentatively followed by a few who were then immediately commanded to “sit down at the front” by the security on the balcony. Still, the band were in absolutely top form, and as they picked their way through the numerous keyboards and synths onstage to begin with an energetic performance of Take A Walk, throughout which Angelekos bounced from one side of the stage to the other, exhorting the audience to respond, which they did joyfully. It was a great display of musicianship throughout, with each band member seemingly in charge of at least two instruments per song. Buoyed equally by the energy of the band and the free beer included with our ticket, we in the upper tiers became more and more comfortable as the set went on, with the relentless tunes, with catchy synths just getting catchier as the night went on. A more stripped back interlude in the middle where Angelekos re-
treated from the spotlight at the front of the stage to a piano saw a rare more subdued moment from the band. The highlight of the night though was undoubtedly the last song. The nature of free concerts means that perhaps there is always the potential for an audience not to be as familiar with the band as usual. However the familiar opening strains of Sleepyhead was greeted with cheers of gleeful recognition from the crowd and Passion Pit proceeded to blaze through their debut single, leading a huge singalong. Their encore of Little Secrets saw the crowd lit up as the stage lights flashed and twinkled in time with the call-and-response chorus between band and audience, and the frenetic set was over. The overall vibe was extremely relaxed and enjoyable, with the band feeding of a happy and receptive crowd. We left completely satisfied, Green Spheres again providing absolutely excellent value for no money.
dant musical worth. Atmospheric, visceral and all-consuming. Eerie, uplifting and wonderful. They ticked all the boxes. Once the mu-
sic stopped, the narcotic echo of their sound was all that was left; the audience was left speechless and desperate for their next fix.