Maria Kelly
Maria Kelly’s set was beautifully eerie whilst gaining the attention and support of the intimate crowd in the Róisín. Kelly’s song “Dark Places” provided a somber opening to the set, the haunting music video for which can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMhcI5LEXAg
Dark Places goes hand in hand with Kelly’s song “Small Talk”, a revealing melody based on the struggles of social anxiety. To conclude the humble set, Kelly performed “June”, “July”, and “August” from her upcoming EP, Notes to Self. The EP was written following Kelly’s move to Berlin, and is a reflection on change, alienation, and movement. June’s “I lay on my back, I stare at the ceiling” establishes the tone of vulnerability and uncertainty present through all three songs, and the progression of finding oneself was performed beautifully in this set.
All The Luck In The World
All The Luck In The World, originally from County Wicklow, are also based in Berlin now. Standout songs from their set were “Golden October”, “Contrails” and “Never”. The band utilised silence and moments of pause skilfully to create some suspension in their otherwise easy-listening set of folk and alternative acoustic indie sound. The band’s singer-songwriter Neil Foot introduced “Never” with “this is our oldest song…it will always be our oldest song”.
The innocence and angst of “Never” is in direct contrast with All The Luck In The World’s newest release, “Tested and Tried”. This bold change in style and sound received a warm response from the intimate crowd. The build-up and overlaying of the lyrics “how do we put ourselves first?” was almost rap-like and produced a lot of excitement in the audience. This lyric is revealing of the band’s process of music-making itself; ATLITW admitted to aspiring to self-produce more, and confessed that such an itch is one of the reasons that they had put out the single, “Tested and Tried”.
Overall, a beautiful gig with a balance between the tone of the support and main acts; the old favourites and new releases. It was great to have both Maria Kelly and ATLITW temporarily back home from Berlin, and playing in Galway for the first time in the band’s history.
★★★
Frances Wilde 