Birmingham Gig Guide - News and Reviews

Surfer dude turned singer-songwriter mega star, Johnson’s laid back acoustic vibe seems an unlikely sound to have capture a far from surf n sun kissed UK, but the In Between Dreams (Island) album has flown out of shops by the truckload and his live shows sold out within minutes, demand transferring it from the Academy to the bigger environs of the NEC. Even his soundtrack for the animated kids film Curious George has busted its way into the charts.

Recalling the hazy lazy days of John Sebastian, Johnson’s songs are mellow upbeat affairs, soaked in sand between the toes melodies and delivered in his soft, sweet sitting by the campfire voice to a gentle, finger-picking accompaniment.

Songs like Banana Pancakes, Better Together, Good People and Constellations underline his hippie sensibilities and even when life throws a wipe out like the bittersweet love and loss in Sitting, Waiting, Wishing, it’s hard to imagine him throwing a moody and stomping off for a sulk. Go chill.

Sharing the evening, not to mention the sunny folk pop groove, will be Matt Costa, a former California skateboarder who turned to playing guitar and writing songs after breaking his leg. Signed to Johnson’s Bush fire Records label, he arrives with debut album Songs We Sing, a pleasant collection of 13 tracks that variously flirt with folk psychedelia (Sweet Thursday, Behind The Moon), country (Sweet Rose, Ballad of Miss Kate), Beatles ragtime pop (Oh Dear), surf noir, and classical pop, even calling to mind Paul Simon on Yellow Taxi.

It’s an unfussy but beguiling affair that harks back to the halcyon days of 60s folk troubadours who could capture your ear with their warm, scuffed voices, your heart with their simple melodies and your mind with the things they had to say. Costa should come back soon and headline his own shows.

Rounding things off are Animal Liberation Orchestra, also signed to Johnson’s label and fronted by Zach Gillis who plays in his touring band. As you might expect, they aren’t a million miles from the same musical roots, though debut album Fly Between Falls, also summons more Caribbean flavours on the calypso rippling Spectrum and gets into laid back California soul n sunny funk on things like Shapeshifter (where Grateful Dead influences filter in), Wasting Time and forthcoming single Girl, I Want To Lay You Down where Johnson lends his vocals to the eased back lazy Steely Dan grooves.

They’ve a nice sense of humour too, Waiting For Jaden a playful skipping pop soul song inspired by the reluctance of a baby to be born, while the funky Paul Simon rippling rhythms of Barbecue sports lines about roasting dreams that never came true on a spit. Like Costa, they deserve a full set of their own to show what they can really do when they stretch out.

A Brighton quartet with a name that references the meeting for the Last Supper, they make their debut with All Over This Town (Sony), a pleasant if not overly memorable piece of circular riffing guitar indie pop with singer Alex Miller affecting a certain Morrissey catch to his English phrasing delivery. Originally released to mass indifference in 2004, it’s getting a repromotion in the hope of picking up any of the stray post Coldplay audience out there looking for something new to latch on to. I guess they could do worse.

Though some would make a case for Thick As A Brick, Aqualung with its cynicism about organised religion, is generally reckoned to be the best of Tull’s albums, a sentiment born out by the fact it won a Grammy. Certainly Ian Anderson seems to share the opinion, since he’s taken to touring the whole thing as a live show (now with accompanying album, recorded at an intimate radio show in Washington), playing the album in its entirety. Anderson’s lightened up a bit since the original days and, while no less focused, there’s a less intense mood to the material these days, with almost playful intersong banter and introductions, introducing Mother Goose as "a bit of surreal nonsense".

This is the first time the album’s ever been performed whole in the UK , the set opening with the title track and working its way through the likes of Crosseyed Mary and Cheap Day Return through My God, Slipstream and the classic Locomotive Breath to Wind-up. It stands up extremely well given the years that have passed between times, and its lyrical concerns are, if anything, even more relevant in the current climate of fundamentalism in all religions.

Joined by long serving guitarist Martin Barre, the current Tull incarnation also features young violinist Lucia Micarelli who’ll be duetting with flautist Anderson and taking solos on the career sampling numbers that will make-up the second part of the show, just so you don’t have to start calling out for Living in The Past midway through Wond’ring Aloud!

They’re from LA and been called a meeting between Nirvana and The Bangles, reason enough to be interested to see what this female trio have to offer in advance of debut album Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking? (Geffen). Seasoned with three previous EPs and support slots with Tori Amos and Kings of Leon, they know their way around their instruments and the basics of a solid hard pop melody, amply demonstrated by the Monday morning chugging tumble of radio friendly single June Gloom with its big crunchy chorus and the riff swaggering What I Say And What I Mean where those Bangles references strike strongest.

There’s a couple of amiable time fillers, The One and Falling Away, but with the likes of the emotive melancholia of Bridge To Nowhere, a brooding Once Things Look Up and, a likely live stormer, Under The Paving Stones, there’s every reason to get Like-minded.

Further proof that their resurrection’s not just for Christmas nostalgia best of outings, Miles Hunt and Malc Treece return with the revamped Stuffies for a second new studio album, the follow up the well received Greetings From Rubbish Island. Released on the 20th anniversary of their formation, Suspended By Stars (IRL) is pretty much new business as usual, continuing their progress towards stadium rock (Tricks of the Trade surely nudges the hat in U2’s direction) with indie edge on a collection of fiery guitar driven tracks that display all the bite and power of old. While kick off single Blah Blah Lah Di Dah borrows Ig’s Passenger riff, the general impression here is that the band’s gone for anthemic, building to crescendos with Last Second of the Minute, We Hold Each Other Up, Someone Tell Me What To Think (which features violinist Erika Nockalls in fine fettle) and the Squeeze-like mellow reflective The Sun Goes Down On Manor Road.

Fans of their fiddly folk will be happy to find Nockalls letting rip on the big Leone-canvas drama Angelica Maybe while also proving the saving grace on the closing, direction-lacking No-One Tells ‘Em Like You Do, and, although the album often bristles with power, will hopefully inject energy into the live set given reports that, last time round, the band were looking a little on the tired side.

On a somewhat worrying note, it’s a little hard to believe that Hunt, noted for his acidic rejection of compromise and selling out, can now be found lending his image to a Brummie busker cartoon character on new pre-schoolers series Underground Ernie, a sort of London underground version of Thomas The Tank Engine, for which the band has also written and performed the music. Go on, I dare you, ask them to play the theme song!

Tuesday March 14

Avenged Sevenfold

Finally arriving after having to postpone the original dates, this is the first time the California crew have been here since throat surgery called an end to M.Shadows’ screaming vocals and the band ditched the hardcore in favour of a more mainstream approach to metal. They’re over to promote City of Evil, their first release for Warners, an album that plays like Iron Maiden mixing it up with Guns N Roses but frequently taken at a hammering machine gun Pantera speed. Indeed, when Burn It Down blasts out you wonder whether someone turned up the tape speed on the guitar and drum tracks.

Lifting the vaguely radio friendly Beast And The Harlot as the new single, most of the tracks clock in at over the six minute mark, exhausting listening as they batter down the doors with the likes of Burn It Down, Bat Country, Blinded In Chains and Trashed And Scattered although there’s a reprieve to catch your breath with a flamenco play out on Sidewinder and the ballad highs of Seize The Day and Strength Of The World. Expect to crawl home, drained.

7.30pm. £12.50, Carling Academy

Tuesday March 14

My Latest Novel

Post rock folk from Greenock, the quintet’s debut novel, Wolves (Bella Union) has been deservedly greeted with glowing praise for its silvery melodies and tempo shifting arrangements that embrace cello, violin, chants and, on Learning Lego, children’s choir in a web of dark, poetic, sometimes fey leafy modern folk imbued with shadowy fairy tale moods and, on The Reputation Of Ross Francis, sounding like a happy meeting of Arcade Fire and the Incredible String Band.

They’re capable of surging fire on Ghost In The Gutter and the climactic violin soaring finale of Sister Sneaker Sister Soul, but it’s the more considered, sinuous moments that really see them shine; things like the sea shanty tumbles and chimes of a tremulous Pretty In A Panic, the whistling, handclapping shuffle of The Hope Edition, a Belle & Sebastian calypso and carousel The Job Mr Kurtz Done with its spoken lyric and the shivering menace of When We Were Wolves which mostly consists of some three minutes of the band chanting the title over a steady slow military beat before the gathering climax. It’ll be interesting to see how this all comes together live, but on disc at least they’re a real must read.

8pm. £6. Glee Club

Wednesday March 15

Imperial Vipers

Put together with a mutual love of Led Zep, Soundgarden and MC5, the Vipers trade in no frills, riff heavy crunchy hard guitar rock filtered through a punk energy. Following on from last year’s slow and spare steamrollering Promised Land, they return with new single Jewels (Eminence), a sparkier, more New Wave and ska rhythm inflected track that suggests what The Clash might have been had Slash been their guitarist while Scars Alone flies the flag for those who prefer their roiling Zep flavours.

7.30pm. £8. Club Barfly, Digbeth

Wednesday March 15

Jim Moray

Born in Macclesfield and trained at Birmingham Conservatoire, the sweet voiced Moray announced his arrival at the tail end of 2003 with debut album Sweet England featuring his contemporary takes on traditional English folk, bringing the likes of electronica, samples, hip hop and post rock to such evergreens as Early One Morning and the Raggle Taggle Gypsies.

Sharing the bill here with former Strangelove frontman Patrick Duff, tonight’s solo acoustic gig serves as an early showcase for his self-titled sophomore release, a like-minded nu-folk collection that turns Moray’s tricks on a further case of trad chestnuts that include Barbara Allen, Lord Willoughby (where he pronounces ‘the 14th day of July’ as Julie), Fair + Tender Lovers (as in Ladies) and Who’s The Fool? alongside his own self-penned contributions, the piano ballad Magic When You’re Near and a seven minute high drama My Sweet Rose which suggests long term ambitions may be more inclined to the stadiums than the folk clubs.

7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy

Thursday March 16

Fightstar

It’s two years since Charlie Simpson quit Busted to pursue his harder nu metal ambitions which, following an EP and a couple of singles, now culminates in debut album Grand Unification (Island), a competent but ultimately workmanlike collection of emo-esque rock that sounds like a band too in thrall to the likes of Linkin Park to really forge their own sound. Charlie’s throat ripping yowls are a long way from the bubble fizz of old but numbers like Lost Like Tears In The Rain. Mono and Sleep Well Tonight underline the fact that he can actually sing while Alex Westaway clearly knows how to rip out a vicious guitar line. But it’s hard not to hear the likes of Grand Unification I and II, Build An Army and Hazy Eyes as just so much bluster that barely offers one reason to get involved let alone a hundred.

7.30pm. £12. Carling Academy

Friday March 17

Van Morrison

Given he’s long been nicknamed the Belfast Cowboy and has taken much inspiration from the American south, it’s taken a hell of a long time for Morrison to get round to making a country album. He puts matters to right now with Pay The Devil (Exile/Polydor), a collection of covers of his favourite country songs fleshed out with three originals. Although the voice isn’t as well textured as in his peak days, tending to sound harsh at times rather than warm and mellow, this is still something of a high for the latter half of his career. He’s chosen well from the tears and beers repertoire with sterling, emotion shaking covers of Hank Williams’s Your Cheatin’ Heart, Backstreet Affair, George Jones hit Things Have Gone To Pieces and Rodney Crowell’s ‘Til I Gain Control Again though, it must be said, his take on There Stands The Glass isn’t a patch on that by Ted Hawkins.

His own contributions stand tall in the distinguished company, and it’s easy to imagine hearing Hank himself singing the title track or This Has Got To Stop while Playhouse is a solid nod of the head to the country stylings of Ray Charles. There are times though when, par for the course, Morrison does sound like he’s going through the perfunctory motions and might as well be singing a phonebook which, given his reputation for clock on clock off live performances suggests both album and show should be approached with a certain amount of caution on your expectations.

7.30pm. £32.50/£28.50. Symphony Hall

Sunday March 19

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Things are going rather well for the Dublin based Mexican guitar duo, their self titled third album release and tour dates. Mexican virtuoso acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela release their self-titled third album (Rubyworks) crashing into the top of the Irish charts, the first instrumental album ever to do so. As with the previous Lice Manchester and Dublin, it combines a fistful of self-penned material with classic rock covers, this time round taking on the really big guns with a sultry version of Metallica’s Orion and managing to bring a fresh interpretation to Led Zep’s Stairway To Heaven that’s likely to prove something of a set showstopper.

The original material’s no padding either, scorching from the opening with the fiery blooded rhythm shifting Tamacun and intricate tumbling Diabolo Rojo, conjuring passionate Latin sun evenings on Vikingman and the percussive Satori and inviting gypsy violinist Roby Lakatos to provide a blistering solo on Ixtapa.

Dazzling live performers with fast flying fingers that seem to defy the laws of motion, their return and the arrival of new numbers is guaranteed to have the place heaving at the seams.

8pm. £10. Glee Club

Monday March 20

Stiff Little Fingers

Give or take time off between split and reunion, the Belfast boys have been going for getting for 30 years, emerging in 1977 to spearhead the Irish contribution to the New Wave explosion with potent, angry numbers like Alternative Ulster and Suspect Device. Although great records like Bits Of Kids and Is That What You Fought The War For, the band never much troubled the UK charts, they still sustained a loyal following that have stuck with them over the decades, their dynamic live gigs recruiting new devotees along the way.

With original member Ali McMordie replacing Bruce Foxton on bass, they’ll be doing the usual tour through the back catalogue tonight and possibly slipping in the odd preview of next year’s forthcoming 30th anniversary album, but it’s worth noting that. while unlikely to figure in the set, lead singer and founder member Jake Burns is also touting his debut solo album, Drinkin’ Again (EMI).

The result of a long nurtured ambition of recording an album in the traditional Irish sound, it’s a very Celtic folk influenced collection with plenty of acoustic guitars, fiddles, whistles and pipes on tracks that take in a cover of Van Morrison’s Domino (with Burns sounding like he’s doing a Stars In Their Eyes impression), Eric Bogle’s Green Fields of France, trad songs like Cliffs of Dooneen, The Well Below The Valley and a knees up rattle through the band’s own, previously unrecorded title track.

7.30pm. £12.50. Carling Academy.

Monday March 20

The Black Velvets

Still touring their somewhat forgettable meat and potatoes rock debut Get On Your Life, the Liverpool quartet make a suitably bolshy guitar rock noise but with the last couple of singles failing to break the Top 40, their assault on next big thing status seems to have ground to a decided halt.

7.30pm. £6. Bar Academy

Tuesday March 21

The Kooks

The Brighton indie popsters head back on the road for a continued reminder of debut album Inside In/Inside Out (Virgin) with its sharply written songs of youthful frustration and screwed up relationships.

A throwback to the 60s and 70s with comparisons to everyone from The Jam and The Kinks to Dexys and The Strokes, it’s not actually going anywhere new and there does tend to be rather more padding than necessary but when they sharpen their pop razor on something like the simple acoustic Seaside where Ray Davies meets Damon Albarn, the rollocking goodtime summery strum She Moves In Her Own Way and You Don’t Love Me’s big beat 60s r&b pop staccato jitters their future looks very promising indeed.

7.30pm. £7.50. Carling Academy

Wednesday March 22

Oceansize

The Manchester based three guitar five piece return for more of the space rock, prog rock and post rock that makes up current album Everyone Into Position where Pink Floyd meets Muse and Soundgarden. Heavy without being slablike but also capable of fragility, they conjure a vast sound that is as adept at screaming, bloodied guitars (A Homage to a Shame) as it is ethereal brooding expanses of sound (Music For A Nurse). They’re lifting New Pin, not perhaps the album’s best track, as the new single, but live they’re guaranteed to sweep you away with their crushingly beautiful noise.

7.30pm. £7.50. Carling Academy 2

Wednesday March 22

The Open

A semi hometown gig by the part Walsall quintet fronted by the often choirboy like bruised voice of Steven Bayley who foudn themselves attracting ‘best new band in the country’ tags with the release of 2004’s debut album The Silent Hours. Now the fuss has died down, the arrival of sophomore release Statues (Polydor) afford a cooler-headed response to their Verve-like soundscapes. They’ve expanded their textures, building on the bedrock of English guitar rock to incorporate jazz and chill out blues flavours, citing Magazine and the Cocteau Twins as core influences but also clearly nodding in the direction of Doves and Radiohead.

The big swathes of reverb drenched guitars and orchestral noise remain, turning many of the songs into miserabilist epics but, for all the intense riffage of My House, the rain washed sax of Forever, the forlorn waltzing atmospherics of Lovers in The Rain and a brooding We Can Never Say Goodbye you can’t help think they’re trying too hard to impress with their complexity, even the spare voice and guitar melancholic title track feeling unnecessarily portentous. Maybe they’ll loosen up a little live and regain some of the rawer emotional heft that informed the debut and justified those original glowing predictions.

7.30pm. £7. Little Civic

Friday March 24

The Hollies

One of the longest serving of the original 60s outfits, the band still features original members Bobby Elliot and Tony Hicks with for Cliff Richard backing singer Peter Howarth stepping in to take charge of lead vocals following the sad death of Carl Wayne. And they’re not just trading on their past laurels. While the show will inevitably feature a high percentage of the old hits (Stay, I’m, Alive, He Ain’t Heavy, The Air That I Breathe etc etc), they’ll also be spotlighting their new album Staying Power (EMI), a collection of material penned by some of the top jobbing songwriters around, including Enrique Iglesias and Rob Davis, the former Mud guitarist who co-wrote Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.

However, while the likes of You’re So Damn Beautiful, Shine On Me and Break Me are averagely passable in their own right, you have to wonder what long time fans are going to think about them now sounding like some poodle-haired 80s American stadium outfit or, worse, on Prove Me Wrong, some flavour of the month boy band!

7.30pm. £22.50-£17.50. Symphony Hall

Friday March 24

OK Go

With second album Oh No (Angel Music) now available in your friendly neighbourhood music emporium, the Chicago power poppers head swiftly back in to town to deliver buying incentives. So, just to remind, it’s an infectious, hooks riddled rocking affair that swings from the slamming out three minute pop punk of Crash The Party to the bluesy with No Sign Of Life and the Franz Ferdinand meets the Stones of A Good Idea At The Time with other Britrock references embracing such names as Blur (Oh Lately It's So Quiet), Ray Davies (The House Wins) and EMF whose Unbelievable was clearly recycled for the dance friendly Invincible. Not necessarily originalists then, but if they keep producing albums and show of this calibre they can park their tour bus back here anytime.

7.30pm. £7.50. Carling

Fri Mar 24-Sun Mar 26

Gigbeth

A weekend of free gigs and showcases by all manner of local bands, solo artists and performers from a variety of musical genres and staged across a variety of Digbeth venues that include Barfly, South Birmingham college, Sanctuary and The Medicine Bar, this is a perfect occasion to acquaint yourself with some of the city’s often unsung rising talent as well as grab sets from established names like Pato Banton, Neville Staple and the Dohl Blasters.

Held at SBC from 7pm, Friday’s launch show is particularly impressive with half hour sets from emergent jazz star Lizzy Parks, Handsworth singer songwriter Vijay Kishore (soulful delta blues falsetto for grown up ears), regular show sell-out favourites Colvin Quarmby, and Chrissy Van Dyke, formerly of drum 'n' bass dance outfit Plutonik and now plying her powerful vocal wares and Nina Simone influences as an acoustic singer-songwriter guitarist.

The one to make a special note of though is Wolverhampton’s Scott Matthews who’ll be warming up for the forthcoming tour and previewing material from his debut album Passing Strangers (San Remo) where his throaty Plant-like voice wraps itself around a fusion of folk, delta blues, world and rock that embraces such diverse influences as Ry Cooder, Zeppelin, The Beatles and Ravi Shankar.

Saturday features a joint promotion at the Sanctuary between The Catapult Club and Zoot with a line up that includes Misty’s Big Adventure, Envy & Other Sins and The Twang. Leamington Spa’s recent chart toppers Nizlopi will be at Barfly from 6pm launching new single Girl with support from Hall Drive while the fest wraps up on Sunday with appearances by Black Voices, The Courtesy Group, and Rankin’ Roger. For full fest times check out www.gigbeth.com

Fri Mar 24

Feeder

They had a good 2005 with their embracing of soft rock and heaven vaulting melodies on current album Pushing The Senses, building musical cathedrals with Feeling A Moment and Tender and soaring into the sky on the Coldplay-like Bitter Glass. But while they retained some of the old thrashy approach with the title cut and Pilgrim, you have to wonder whether the new mellowing may have cost them some of the old fan base and whether this step up to arena level may not be a little over early ambitious unless there’s a fire in the hold to offset the inclination towards ruminative anthems.

Unlikely to lapse into anything resembling a last dance waltz or emotional epiphany, support comes from Welsh pranksters Goldie Looking Chain who’ll be working the crowds into an early flurry of limbshaking with their amusing not to say sweary observations on British life and culture set to bling friendly pop grooves.

7.30pm. £18.50. NEC

Fri Mar 24

Bell X1

Taking their name from the aircraft in which Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier and counting Damien Rice among their former members, the Dublin-based quartet set the buzz going back home with their 2000 debut album

Neither Am I, consolidating with follow up Music In Mouth, a gorgeously bruised tumble and jangle of Irish folk-pop. Singer Paul Noonan has one of those heart choking in his mouth voices that seems permanently on the edge of an emotional breakdown, an aching heard to good effect on Snakes & Snakes where the Byrds mate with Miracle Legion, while numbers like White Water Song display the funkier shades of their Talking Heads influence.

They return now with Flock (Island), another collection of moody, spare introspective moments and full blooded guitar driven rock that will do little to dispel the Snow Patrol, Thom Yorke or (on Bigger Than Me) David Byrne comparisons

Not that much matters, given the rather splendid nature of the shimmering cascading string hazed folk-pop that is Bad Skin Day, the wiry rhythms of Flame and My First Born For A Song, a chiming chugging Natalie and the weak at the knees beauty of Just Like Mr Benn or the melancholic Lamposts’ closing emotional fist most will be too enthralled to bother about ticking off the reference points.

Support’s provided by Brighton quartet The Upper Room, still busy promoting debut single All Over This Town (Sony), a pleasant if not overly memorable piece of circular riffing guitar indie pop with singer Alex Miller affecting a certain Morrissey catch to his English phrasing delivery.

7.30pm. £7.50. Carling Academy 2.

Sunday March 26

Good Shoes

Bubbling out of Morden, this fresh formed quartet trade in twitchy three minute pop with its roots in the punky days of the late 70s and bands like the Pistols and Clash as well as assorted shades of Bowie, Jam, early Talking Heads, Smiths and Pulp as they variously sing about love and knock conformity. There’s a tendency for the four tracks on the new We Are Not The Same (Brille) EP to all rather sound similar with their choppy spiky guitars and jittery vocal delivery, but taken in isolation We Are Not The Same, the witty Southwest Trains and Things To Make And Do at least hold the attention and shiver the limbs for the duration.

7.30pm. £5. Bar Academy.

Sunday March 26

The Answer

Ireland’s Zep, Free and AC/DC loving quartet have been a bit quiet of late, but they’re back to make up for that with a headlining tour in support of new riff roasting goodtime rock 'n' roll single Into The Gutter (Albert Production), an already proven live favourite and useful taster for the forthcoming debut album of no doubt equally old school bluesy rock

7.30pm. £5. Little Civic

Monday March 27

Imogen Heap

Three years on from her collaboration as half of Frou Frou, seven since her debut I Megaphonic, breathy voiced Brit Heap returns to the fray for Speak For Yourself (Megaphonic), an album of twinkling coffee table electropop that blends sunkissed sweetness easy listening with classy sophistication.

Things open with Headlock set to a machine beat that practically conjures up images of robotic dancers performing in the video, but it still has heart. Likewise the pulsating beats of Goodnight and Go with its Jeff Beck guitar or Loose Ends, a number that evokes almost nostalgic thoughts of 80s Howard Jones.

Undoubtedly best known will be Hide and Seek, a song about disbelief, betrayal and grief that featured on The OC and on which she dispenses with music per se and doubles up and treats her vocals to produce a song not a million miles away from Laurie Anderson, but with warm blood in its veins.

It's not all soft and gentle melodies. Daylight Robbery is a virtual roar of noise compared to some of its album partners while, for example, The Walk and Just For Now, ably demonstrate the sort of range and experimentation she's embraced. It repays deep listening. Behind the obvious you may hear incidental, accidental noises like trains passing her studio, or sighs that escape between words. But, ultimately, it's the songs, the voice and the vignettes of vulnerable emotions that make this so worthwhile. Heap's speaking for herself, you owe it to yourself to listen to what she has to say.

7.30pm. £10. Carling Academy 2

Monday March 27

Cara Dillon

Three years on from sophomore album Sweet Liberty, the Co Derry folkstress returns with her third collection, After The Morning (Rough Trade). It’s another package of self-penned and traditional tunes but, while the trad arrangements remain there’s a definite push towards mainstream crossover evident on debut single Never In A Million Years, the sort of Celtic soft folk rock you might expect from The Corrs while I Wish You Well takes in banjo and fiddle for a bluegrass sound likely to wake up American ears.

But it’s the trad flavoured numbers that are the strongest, many harking back to her roots and family with Brockagh Braes a song she used to sing as a child, October Winds written for her late father and the plaintive self-explanatory Streets of Derry where she partners for a duet with Paul Brady. The self-penned Bold Jamie and the strings orchestrated The Snows They Melt The Soonest is trad offer two further stand out moments, so it’s a slight disappointment that the album rather falls away in the final moments with a somewhat bland version of Walls and the Sam Lakeman written Grace where the rather limp love song lyrics let down the beguiling simplicity of the arrangement.

The album should figure prominently on tonight’s set, though I suspect that it’s still going to be her haunting cover of There Were Roses’ tragic tale of sectarian divides that’s going to be the one everyone’s waiting for.

7.30pm. £13. midland arts centre

Monday March 27

Clearlake

Having raced out of the starting gate in championship form with debut album Lido, Clearlake have sadly proven unable to maintain the pace. Follow up Cedars with a patchwork affair of the great and the indifferent and now comes Amber (Domino), a make or break affair that sees the band losing track of itself as they try and bludgeon audiences into submission with often harsh, brutal riffage rather than their anthemic storms.

Occasionally they pull out a plum, as with the opening psychedelic swirl of No Kind of Life and the closing Getting Light Outside where Paint It Black takes off into the cosmos with early Pink Floyd while Good Clean Fun is shining reverb-rock, but the fat and noisy Neon, swaggery stomp Finally Free and racing Far Away are all aimless bluster and rush with no sonic substance. And why are they playing at being Depeche Mode on Here To Learn?

The shimmery title track is evidence that the band still have inspiration in their hands, but whether they’ll get the chance to translate that into a fourth album is open to debate.

7.30pm. £6.50. Little Civic