Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie
The past year has seen some music legends shuffle off this mortal coil. The losses started early, on January 10, David Bowie passed away, shortly after releasing the magnificent Blackstar. As well as eloquently facing up to the dying of the light, songs like Lazarus and I Can’t Give Everything Away are up there with his finest compositions. The different moods and genres Bowie jumped through are jaw-dropping, there weren’t many performers who could rival him.
Except, perhaps, for Prince, who died in April. Where do you start with Minneapolis’s most famous son? His insane falsetto? The guitar playing that could rival Hendrix, dance moves that out-stepped James Brown and Michael Jackson or the sheer mastery of funk? The quality of his recorded output had perhaps dropped, but there was no doubting Prince’s prowess as live performer. He died at only 57, in the middle of a tour, but that might still have been the case had he lived to 82.
Which is the number of trips Leonard Cohen clocked around the sun before he passed away in November. Like Bowie, he released an excellent album before his death. You Want It Darker received rave reviews, and the title track is an acerbic and poignant gem. Cohen got to the essence of what it is to be human, and his lyrics are some of the finest that have ever been to put music. His late renaissance as a live performer was a fitting bookend to an exemplary career, and his work will continue to be pored over as long as there are pages to be read and speakers in the world.
It may be something of a jump, but here at home, Galway has seen its fair share of excellent live performances this year. One worth noting is John Conneely Inc’s continuing Sunday residency in the Róisín Dubh. Kicking off at midnight, laughing in the face of Monday morning, Conneely’s rumbling voice is augmented by a changing band of clarinet, dobro, trumpet and violin players.
For many, Galway’s year revolves around the summer and the gigs in the Big Top always loom large in the musical calendar. The highlight of this year’s Art Festival, to these eyes and ears, was Suede’s show in the big blue tent. The band commissioned Roger Sargent to make a film to accompany their latest album Night Moves. At their Galway gig, this film was projected on to a screen that a semi-lit Suede played behind. The sides of the Big Top were closed off, and the excellent sound and visuals combined to make for a rock show with a difference. Talking to people afterwards, many loved it, while others actively disliked it. But didn’t that make a pleasant change from an established band simply rattling through their hits? Anyway, Suede did this too in the second half, with Brett Anderson throwing rock star shapes like his life depended on it. The crowd singing the hit single Trash at the top of their voices had to be one of the highlights of 2016.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
