Venue:
HANDSOME FAMILY, Liberty Theatre, Eden Quay, Dublin
Date: 03/05/2024
With nosebleed seats for Stevie Nicks upcoming 3 Arena show priced at a haemorrhage-inducing E151, Irish fans have plenty of reasons to whinge long and hard about obscenely high ticket prices. Yet search around and it’s still possible to catch a great gig without having to surrender your arm and leg when logging on to ticketmaster.ie.
With tickets costing just E30, tonight’s Handsome Family European tour opener at Dublin’s wonderfully intimate Liberty Theatre is a classic example. Probably best known for Far From Any Road (the theme tune for the first – and best – season of True Detective), Brett (vocals and acoustic guitars) and Rennie Sparks (bass, banjo, harmonies) have built up a small but fanatically loyal audience during their 29-year, 11-album career. Some 400 of that fanbase’s diehard Dublin chapter are out in force to see them and sidemen Alex McManus (guitar) and Jason Toth (drums) make a welcome return to the Fair City.
After some good natured joshing about the wisdom of seeing acts on the opening nights of their tours, Brett, Rennie and their sidemen start their 17-song set with Joseph, the opener from their 2023 album, Hollow. Offsetting Rennie’s endearingly eccentric lyrics against Brett’s earworm melodies, the song – apparently inspired by a scream in the night from Rennie during COVID – is as perfect an introduction to the band as you could wish for.
Interspersed with surreal banter from Rennie and irascible uncle-style grousing from Brett, the next 90-minutes simply fly by. In addition to inevitable favourites such as Far From Home and the Phoebe Bridgers-covered Christmas song, So Much Wine, highlights include established classics such as The Loneliness of Magnets, Weightless Again and My Sister’s Tiny Hands. While Brett professes himself to be no great lover of shouted out requests, he even find time to fit in rarely performed fan favourites like Tin Foil and Arlene during a generous three-song encore.
Despite knowing very little about the band before the gig, I came away greatly impressed. They’ll doubtless be playing another small Dublin venue a year or two from now and when they do, I might justbe among the extended family on hand to welcome them back.
Joseph
The Bottomless Hole
So Much Wine
The Loneliness of Magnets
My Sister’s Tiny Hands
Weightless Again
Shady Lake
Back in My Day
Far From Any Road
24-Hour Store
Frogs
Octopus
Two Black Shoes
Encore:
The Giant Of Illinois
Tin Foil
(Audience Request)
Arlene
(Audience Request)
Goodnight
The audience:
Mainly over 50s
It made me think..
Brett and Rennie Sparks’ uniquely quirky ‘Western Gothic’ musical stylings is a mix tailor made to win over fans old and new in the land of Flann O’Brien
This reply just to get the review on the recently updated list so it doesn’t drop off the front page
It’s interesting that you use the term “just £30”. I wonder if, in general, gig prices are now too low! On Sunday I saw an excellent gig for £15 and would have happily paid more. The gig I’m looking forward to most at the moment is Esther Rose at the Lexington for a crazy £10!!! I would have expected it too be twice that price. Once we’ve decided to go out for the evening, do most of us care about a few pounds extra on the ticket price? Are the grass roots venues missing a trick? I appreciate not everyone is in the comfortable position I’m in but I’m not alone.
I’m back off to the Lexington in a few weeks time to see Scott Lavene (about £13 a ticket if you wondered). Lovely little place to see a band.
We just saw The Breath play for £25. The first gig in this year’s lineup for the Bristol Folk Festival, they packed Bristol Cathedral and sang and played their hearts out. Nearly two hours of magnificence for the price of a main course at a half-decent restaurant.
Our next gig is the wonderful Louis Brennan at the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon tomorrow. Standard tickets are £15, but it’s an album fundraiser so we stumped up an extra tenner for one of ours which let us choose a song to be played. Either ticket includes a download of the show after.
https://www.thebetsey.com/music-events
As mentioned in April’s Blogger Takeover thread, all 7 of my gigs that month were for less than £30.
No big(or even medium) names there, but all of them were musically satisfying.
This month, 11 more of the same.
There are a few acts I’d like to see that are above my £30 limit and thus ruled out. A shame for me but they’ll probably have no difficulty in filling the seats without my contribution.
A pity that 2 forthcoming gigs, one by Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand and another by Sarah McQuaid, came to my attention after I’d already committed to other gigs on the same nights. Hopefully they’ll sell their tickets and make their money. Both of these are selling for less than £30.
My Hejira drummer friend Rick is having a successful year. 40 gigs for a 7-piece band is pretty good going. All are priced at less than £30 as far as I know, in club and small theatre venues throughout the land. I don’t suppose they’ll be getting rich on it, but it’s plainly a cost-effective venture.
“Sally”, surely..?
I saw Julian Gaskell and His Ragged Trousered Philanthropists recently for a ‘… what you can afford’ arrangement of ‘… between £3 & £11’. I paid £11, well you would, wouldn’t you? Great really, because any extras, two or three ales, a meal beforehand etc., don’t rocket up the price of the evening.
£15,000 in folding in advance… the best transport there and back… luxury hotel for the night… best seats with no queuing… three – no, five – course meal… all I could drink… that’s my price tag for Stevie Nicks. Oh yeah, and that would be ‘her’ paying me.
Will be seeing John Wesley Harding at South Street Reading next week. £15 + £2.50 Booking Fee.
Muchly anticipated.
Prices have gone up though – at South Street I saw The Frank & The Walters, supported by Radiohead, for £4. And then a couple of weeks later, saw the Manic Street Preachers for a fiver – then again that was in 1992
The Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) gig at South Street, Reading is only £15, INCLUDING the booking fee! Some of Wes’s forthcoming gigs on his UK tour, the first one for 15 years, are even cheaper than the Reading one.
As his de facto tour manager, I strongly recommend that you get along to one of the dates below, unless they’re sold out! Ticket links and email addresses for house concerts are here: https://www.wesleystace.com/events
Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding) May UK tour dates
10 May Canon Frome Community Farm, Herefordshire
11 May Bullet Coffee House, Hastings SOLD OUT
12 May Kitchen Garden Café, Birmingham
14 May John Wesley’s New Room, Bristol
17 May Morrell Room, Goring and Streatley, Oxfordshire SOLD OUT
18 May Baulking, Oxfordshire
19 May Wood Festival, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire
20 May Royal Manor Theatre, Portland, Dorset
21 May South Street, Reading
22 May Green Note, Camden, London SOLD OUT
23 May House concert, Great Easton, Leicestershire
24 May The Castle Hotel, Manchester
25 May House concert, Liverpool
26 May Waverley Bar, Edinburgh
27 May Doublet, Glasgow
Last year I saw David Ford with Romeo & Michelle Stoddart, Kathryn Williams and Gary Stewart do a Paul Simon tribute at the Jewish Centre in London. £20 for an amazing 2 hour show that started at 7pm meaning us oldies could be tucked up drinking our Ovaltine by 10 o’clock, all seated as well so no sore knees.
Saw saxophonist Sam Braysher’s Quartet at Luton’s Bear Club on Friday for £16.95 including booking fee.
Saw Simon Moore & Ducato Pietrowski’s Jazz Manouche at The Elephant in N. Finchley on Sunday for £13 (discounted from £17 for mailing list subscribers).
Going to see Gary Crosby, Denys Baptiste, Mark Kavuma, Andrew McCormack and Rod Youngs play Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” at the Pizza Express in Soho tomorrow night (9th) for £30 (including a £2 Nordoff Robbins donation).
Going to see Stanley Dee play Steely Dan at Tropic in Ruislip on Friday 10th for £13.
Going to see Lokkhi Terra at the Pump House Theatre in Watford on the Friday 17th for £25.63 inc. fees, as part of this year’s Watford Jazz Junction Festival.
Also in the festival, I’ll be seeing the Fergus Quill Trio and the Maddy Coombs Quartet at The Pump House’s Colne River Room in the afternoon for £15.38 inc. fees and then the Jean Toussaint Quintet supported by Emile Hinton in the theatre itself in the evening, for £25.63 inc. fees. There are also various associated free pub gigs and an outdoor stage (weather permitting) at Watford Heath on the Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday evening (19th) I’ll be seeing pianist Neil Angilley at the Elephant in N. Finchley for £13 (£17 without discount).
On Wednesday 22nd I’ll be seeing Hattie Whitehead at Servant Jazz Quarters in Dalston for £13.77 inc. fees.
Another two that I’m interested in but haven’t booked yet are saxophonist Tony Kofi & The Organisation at The Bohemia in N. Finchley for £10 on May 26th and young drummer Miranda Radford at Karamel in Wood Green on the 30th for £5.
As you can see, the Pizza Express and Pump House Theatre gigs are the most expensive, with higher overheads/more staff to pay than the pub & club gigs.
Gosh, I’m green with envy that you will get to see Hattie Whitehead in a duo at the Jazz whatsit – I think that will be an absolute belter! She’s not playing anywhere in my neck of the woods this time around, more’s the pity.
Recently seen Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard and Urban Voodoo Machine, and about to see Rich Hall, Bob Log, and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, all for under £30 each. Much prefer these smaller gigs than large arena shows nowadays. You can pretty much stand nose to nose with the act (if that is your wont).
Well you wouldn’t want to stand nose to tail with 7 pigs……
Whatever gets you through the night.
I’m going to see an orchestra play 90 mins of film music at West Road concert hall next Sat, tickets start at £15. Even with two shows in the day, I doubt they’ll cover their petrol money.
Tape Runs Out headline the Blue Moon on the 31st May, tickets £10.