Irish Times writers review Sum41 at the Point Depot, John Mayer at Whelan's and the Ulster Orchestra/Kazuki Ono at the Ulster Hall, in Belfast.
Sum 41
Point Depot
Review by Kevin Courtney
So this is what the kids wanna rock to these days. Standing in the mezzanine of Dublin's Point Depot, I feel like a giant among the hordes of young Sum 41 fans who scurry past me, their spiky green hair barely reaching up to my chest. I also feel old, but find solace in a group of dadrockers who have been dragged here by their teenage sons, but would rather be at home listening to their Led Zeppelin albums.
For most of the crowd, Nirvana are ancient history; their Nevermind is Sum 41's second album, All Killer, No Filler, which established the Canadian quartet as frontrunners in the skateboard punk stakes, and ensured that the Point was at least two-thirds full of raging teenage testosterone. American Hi-Fi opened the evening with their brand of high school rock 'n' roll, encapsulated in their 2001 hit, Flavor Of The Weak, after which The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - relative veterans at this stage - delivered their double sucker punch of ska and punk.
The main attraction arrived onstage at 9.45 p.m., already way past some of the audience's bedtime. But we oldies stifled our yawns, quelled our cravings for Ovaltine, and resigned ourselves to staying up late for a change. What followed was just over an hour of sheer spiky power, as singer/guitarist Deryck, bassist Cone, lead guitarist Brownsound and drummer Stevo laid waste to the masses with lightning speed, snotty attitude and seemingly bottomless reserves of stamina. Forget Ozzy lumbering across the stage or Metallica standing grimly like Hells Angels on guard duty: these guys leapt around like the Point was one giant bouncing castle, and they were hellbent on stomping the air out of it. "Take care of each other," Deryck warned the kids crushing towards the front rows, but luckily not even the Irish fans could keep up with these hyperkinetic Canadians.
Bleedin' wusses.
With hardly a pause between songs, Sum 41 delivered such catchy teenage zombie anthems as No Brains, All Messed Up, Fat Lip and Over My Head (Better Off Dead), niftily blending influences from Blink 182 to Green Day to Iron Maiden. The songs may not be deep and meaningful, but they're delivered with pinpoint accuracy. Their best tunes - In Too Deep, Still Waiting and The Hell Song - are infectious and insidious, just what good pop music should be all about. Forget the Ovaltine - pass the bat's blood instead.
John Mayer
Whelan's
Review by John Lane
A very short space of time, US singer/songwriter John Mayer has gone from well-regarded opening act to fawned-over headliner (with the recent brace of Grammy nominations only helping his cause) and in the process becoming a poster boy for a generation bored with the manufactured mainstream, yet not really interested in straying too far from the middle of the road.
Mayer has an easy manner in his songs and onstage, but the self-deprecation and everyday-observations that dominate his lyrics sometimes seems a little glib - more thought-out than felt - giving the singer a detachment that is slightly at odds with the intimacy of the song. But tonight, as Mayer's voice warms to the task, any such abstract objections quickly cease to matter.
His songwriting has been rightly lauded, but onstage, it is his voice (subtle but never lacking, powerful but never shouty) and his musical sureness that dominate.
Guitar solos have been in exile from much of popular music in recent times, what with the self-indulgent connotations they bring, but Mayer has no such reservations about fleshing out his tunes with the odd guitar-fuelled jam, and with good reason.
He is a serious player - thankfully from the less-is-more school of thought - and the extended solos (notably on Back to You and City Love from his album Room For Squares) gave an insight into Mayer's attuned sense of melody, as well as an ebb and flow to the dynamic of the gig.
Blues and jazz flavours speckled the set, with an impressive rhythm section providing a springboard for Mayer's vocal and guitar flourishes.
Ulster Orchestra/Kazushi Ono
Ulster Hall, Belfast
Pulcinella Suite - Stravinsky, Piano Concerto No 19 - Mozart, Symphony No 8 - Dvoràk
Review by Dermot Gault
The animating Czech rhythms were clearly etched by the strings, tempi were flexible and sympathetic, and balance was carefully managed. But above all Ono provided imaginative sympathy with the music, especially in the quieter parts of the finale, and in the wonderful slow movement, where hushed, expectant pianissimos created atmosphere.
The Ulster Orchestra responded with warm-toned playing, with excellent wind and string solos in the Adagio.
Pulcinella is another entertaining piece, but it is by no means an easy one to bring off. Stravinsky's orchestral textures are at once detailed and exposed, and while the performance here was lively enough, the playing was scratchy in places, some accomplished solo contributions notwithstanding.
A critic recently complained about today's bland, homogenized Mozart. Pascal Rogé's playing of the concerto was beautiful, considered purely as pianism, but the first movement in particular could have provided the above critic with ammunition. The programme note suggested that by this period in his career Mozart's concertos were moving away from polite entertainment pieces, but both conductor and soloist seemed intent on moving this particular concerto back again, so carefully were emphases ironed out of the playing. The work's charm and expressiveness surfaced, however, in the central Allegretto.
