November 10, 2014
The Gloaming tour the west coast, the world & Ireland; meet Sting
Cool thing alert: immediately after we released The Gloaming's self-titled debut, it began popping up on "top 10 records of 2014...so far" lists: Mojo said it all the way back in March. The Irish Times newspaper placed it at #1 in June. (Hip Irish blog Nialler9 has it at #6 because, well, blogs.) And just this week Mashable placed it at #2 in their "visually stunning album covers of 2014" list.
And now that we've gotten the cool/cool stuff out of the way, lets get to the weird/cool stuff: Why yes, that is The Gloamings Martin Hayes standing next between Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson and Sting. Isn't that weird? But also kinda cool? Here's the story: A month ago Hayes was honored with the Spirit of Ireland Award at a gala thrown by New York Citys Irish Arts Center. Not only were Mr. Byrne and Mr. Neeson nice enough to show up at the ceremony, Mr. Sting performed a special set of music alongside The Gloamings Dennis Cahill and Thomas Doveman Bartlett. The gala also raised a bunch of money for the Irish Arts Center. Yay art!
More important for you, the contemporary music fan who lives somewhere on planet earth probably not in New York City: The Gloaming continue to draw sell out crowds at iconic venues around the world. In recent week they made their Australian debut at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Festival, and touched down for shows in The Netherlands and Germany. No need to bother with rankings when it comes to the band's live show. The Sydney Morning Herald gave their gig ★★★★★ calling it "a concert to blaze in the memory." Seeing as they use a 5-star rating system, you can't get better than that. Further live dates have been announced for the Great Hall in Auckland, New Zealand and Londons Barbican Center.
And what about North America you might ask? Well, the band have three gigs scheduled this week, their first on the west coast. Here they are.
November 12: Freight & Salvage Berkeley, CA
November 14: Mondavi Center Davis, CA
November 15: Chan Centre - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Buy your tickets now! Most of these dates are almost sold out. The group are being coy on their plans for a return to our fine continent, but rest assured, more dates are being plotted for 2015. We swear! We were talking to a guy about a thing just last week.
Oh, last but not least. If youre considering an Irish vacation, we have two great Brassland-centric musical experiences to give your trip an extra bit of artistic zazzle. For you advance planners out there, The Gloaming have announced a three-night stand at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland starting in February 2015. Fortunately for The Gloaming the shows sold out under 72 hours after they went on sale; unfortunately for you, I guess you actually cant plan your vacation around it. (Though we here there are scalpers, even in Ireland.)
There are, however, still tickets available for the label's two-night stand at that very same venue, and those gigs are only a month away. The shows take place on Saturday December 13 and Sunday December 14. Get your tickets here & here, forthwith, are the details:
Saturday December 13th
3pm: Crash Ensemble performing the music of Bryce Dessner
4:30pm: This is the Kit
6:30pm: Buke and Gase
Sunday December 14th
8:00pm: Dovemans Burgundy Stain Sessions featuring Anna Calvi, Glen Hansard (Swell Season, Once, The Frames), Paul Noonan (Bell X-1) and Lisa ONeill
You'll notice that since our last announcement, the lovely & talented Anna Calvi has been added to the Burgundy Stain performance. (Sounds of the South regrettably had to cancel. And no, we're not sure what's up with that.)
To tie it all together, here is a sampling of the Doveman-produced EP that Ms. Calvi released this past summer. It's a cover of Keren Ann's "Strange Weather" and features duet partner David Byrne.
Maybe if you come to our thing in Dublin this December you can hear this thing live? (Sans David Byrne, natch.) Either way, the event should be pretty cool. Literally and metaphorically. We've recently been informed December gets pretty chilly in Ireland.
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