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Live review: In The Meadows, Kilmainham, Dublin

 

Fantastic day out at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham for the inaugural In The Meadows.  As with all these multi-stage events, choices have to made, you catch a bit of one artist here, and another there, and hope you manage to catch your ‘must-sees’. 

First up was Syrian bouzouki player Mohammad Syfkhan who played his lengthy pieces backed by programmed beats and occasional singing.  He created a fairly unique atmosphere, and there was a sizeable audience who had arrived early enough for the first act of the day.  From traditional Syrian music to traditional Irish music on the East (main) stage with Cormac Begley.  Begley played a set of traditional tunes such as The Banks of Newfoundland and Gallowglass on an assortment of concertinas.  He told some droll, laconic tales of his life growing up between songs, even giving us his own rendition of Horslips’ Dearg Doom.  There followed a brief visit to the In The Middle stage for Ana Palindrome, an Irish four-piece consisting of two violin players, along with keyboards and some beats, they played moody pieces such as Tumble and will be one to watch later this year I suspect.

Back to the West stage for John Francis Flynn, who played a rousing set to a packed-out tent.  Opening with The Zoological Gardens, his set was a mixture of solo material and material with his band, both for his own compositions and more traditional material.  His own Mole In The Ground, with Flynn on guitar along with a drummer and double bass got the audience dancing, while My Son Tim will have pleased those of a more purist folk persuasion.  Flynn rocked out on tin whistle for Tralee Gaol.  An energetic set finished with the more chilled-out Shallow Brown which featured gorgeous harmonies and a brooding version of Dirty Old Town.  A man having a serious moment.

We managed to catch some of a seriously loud set from Mercury Rev, where Jonathan Donahue and co powered through a good portion of their much-loved Deserter’s Songs album, belting out Tonite It Shows, Goddess On A Hiway, and Holes rising out of the noise.  After powering through Bob Dylan’s Love Sick they finished with Tides of the Moon and a euphoric The Dark Is Rising. 

A sprint to the main stage then for Mogwai, who opened with the first song off their debut album, Yes! I Am A Long Way From Home for a career-spanning set, and seriously upping the guitar quotient.  Stuart Braithwaite and co seemed genuinely delighted to be there, and an early highlight was a soaring version of I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead where they stretched out the tension to a blissful, noisy midsong climax.  When the band are locked into this kind of groove it truly feels like they can do no wrong.  They also showed they can do straightforward, vocal rock with Ritchie Sacramento, before summoning up the ghosts of early Cure with a zonked-out Kids Will Be Skeletons.  Newer material such as the quintessentially Mogwai-sounding Dry Fantasy and a ground-shaking Drive the Nail reverberated right into your soul.  Hunted by the Freak featured Maria Sappho on keyboards and distorted voice, substituting ably for the unavailable Barry Burns.  After the lengthy epic Mogwai Fear Satan they finished off with the borderline metal of Old Poisons.  It's easy to take Mogwai for granted as they have been around nearly 30 years.  While no longer the scary, confrontational rockers of old, they were still able to get most of the audience feverishly nodding along.  Happy Songs for Happy People, indeed.

A detour to the West Stage to the catch the tail-end of Black Country, New Road, who it appears have completely left behind the post-rock, Slint-inspired stylings fo their early material and now feature sweet, prominent vocals, flutes, violins and what sounded like brass on some almost ‘musical’-inspired material such as Turbines/Pigs and Dancers.  They didn’t quite connect.

What to say about headliners Lankum?  The trad-inspired collective, who curated the day have been getting some serious attention and the evidence of this it’s absolutely merited.  They opened with the dark, menacing Go Dig My Grave and Radie Peat and co could do little wrong after that, with it’s bone-shaking percussion and eerie drones.  Clear Away In The Moring had some jaw-dropping harmonies and the band were clearly having the time of their lives.  Palestine got plenty of mentions as you might expect.  A dark-as-fuck The Rocky Road to Dublin had many in the audience singing along.  The band were joined on squeeze box by Cormac Begley for Master Crowley’s before the set climaxed with the towering doom-folk of The Turn, finishing off with a lengthy noise portion.  Sonic Youth eat your heart out.  They remade The Wild Rover as their own with Radie Peat in fine voice and were rejoined by Cormac Begley for the final hooley of Bear Creek.

Such intricate music, it was an awe-inspiring set, nothing false about this Lankum!  The weather stayed fine for the day, and this generally added to the overall good vibes on what proved to be a highly enjoyable event.