Having been a Ryan Adams fan forever I was more than a little excited to finally see him play; going along to the Waterfront on Friday to see him with my sister and meeting numerous folk from Redeemer there as well.
The opening act, i reckoned left a little to be desired, a sort of middle aged scrawny version of Ray Lamontagne but without the voice; in fact he played sort of trad-folk, the sort with lots of warbles and words about maidens, forests and “bonnie lassies”; maybe I’m just not in touch with my Scottish side enough to appreciate it. His guitar playing was pretty great though despite some mad alternative tunings that sometimes verged on making it sound of tune, as my friend Dave put it “some nice guitar work for sure but was not a fan.”
Anyway it didn’t matter much as soon it was the main event. With a stage set up with 3 vocal mics, one for standing at, one at a chair and one at a piano I was half expecting a three piece to come on but it was just so Ryan could move between all 3; something I was pretty pleased to see. Between the opening song of “Oh My Sweet Carolina”, a personal favourite and stuff of his new album, Ashes and Fire, I was pretty instantly hooked. Add to that some good stage banter revolving his own observations and a particularly odd piano song about his late “Mr Cat” there was plenty of humour. My highlight of the evening perhaps was a rather great rendition of his song New York, New York played on piano instead of the usual guitar arrrangment, it was awesome. All rounded of nicely with a cover as his encore, simply saying he knew he couldn’t please everyone as plenty of people shouted out numerous different song requests when he came back on stage. Definitely a gig to grab again next time he comes to Belfast as it definitely exceeded even my own high expectations. Listen to him if you haven’t already, I’ll go out on a limb and promised it’ll be enjoyable. Start with the album Heartbreaker, work your way up.

IN THE CITY is a regular article written by
Luke Williams that looks at city life, culture,
music and events in Belfast.

Last night several of us went to see Benjamin Francis Leftwich play in the Limelight; along with a support act as well.
The gig’s opening act was Rainy Boy Sleep, a sort of early 20’s hipster who i’d seen before and liked, he definitely treads an unknown line between alternative folk and pop punk; although Colin assured me this was not a bad line to tread. Partnered only by a loop pedal he managed to keep a a rowdy enough crowd’s attention for a solid half hour as he moved seamlessly between loud folk songs and fun pop songs such as “The Ambulance Song”. I liked him. And his music was good but Becka did point out he’d be much better with a beard.
Next up was Benjamin Francis Leftwich himself after a slightly annoyingly long wait between acts that was easily half an hour; surprising considering the support act was a soloist too! Benjamin came on just himself first and gently picked at his guitar while singing his usual mellow vocals which kind of make you consider napping in public. No, really, it does. Then he eventually built it up a wee bit with a band playing alongside him for equally mellow music, just, with a band. The highlight of the evening for me was when he declared he was going to be very quiet and go totally without the help of amplification. He held the crowd well as his somewhat weak voice carried through out the limelight just with his guitar; definitely check out the song Maps; it was wonderful.
All in all a good gig, and pretty darn packed too for a Sunday night; especially considering some attendees looked like they might have school in the morning.
Give Benjamin a try next time you’re reading and or planning on going to sleep.

IN THE CITY is a weekly article written by
Luke Williams that looks at city life, culture,
music and events in Belfast.

This Sunday 26th Feb we are beginning a new 22 week series - ‘Colossians: The Urban Hymnal’ - 10:30am, Donegall Street Belfast.

Next Wednesday 29th Feb we are having our first Cluster Night - a night to gather City:Groups regionally - Find out details from your City:Group Leader and on The City.

Join us on our Vision Sunday if you want to know more about us and what we are doing in Belfast.

To find us click here.
Time: 10.30am (Coffee from 10am)

The first band up were called Lanterns on the Lake, and at first it must be admitted their somewhat monotonous yet atmospheric music didn’t do much for me, however somewhere between the wailing violin made to sound like a synth and the zane lowe look a like playing guitar in the corner they did something that colin mcalinden, looking more youthful and less bearded than usual, described as “quite beautiful.” I was still glad the “beauty” lasted under an hour though.

Next up were the headlining act themselves, and after a brief break between setting up, Explosions in the Sky graced the stage. The hour and a half or so that followed was labelled as “a weaving tapestry of guitar magic” by a certain Dave Armstrong but i was content with just calling it awesome; i think it even managed to leave me speechless, that definitely isn’t a frequent occurrence. If you’ve never listened because instrumental music might not be your thing you should give them a go because you often find yourself thinking they manage to create a sound that almost makes you feel like there are vocals despite lacking them. Between songs off the new album “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” and some classics off “Earth is not a cold dead place” the band kept the audience firmly transfixed on their guitar trickery as they moved from song to song with a wall of noise in between that whilst not totally pleasant certainly did keep you intrigued as to why you felt like a small grenade had gone off beside your ear and distracted you from their need to tune up their instruments.

That aside, and the fact my ears are still ringing slightly, it was an awesome gig and if you haven’t listened to explosions yet you probably should, actually you definitely should; more than anything else they might be the easiest karaoke songs to learn ever.

IN THE CITY is a weekly article written by
Luke Williams that looks at city life, culture,
music and events in Belfast

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