MC-4!
The last time I saw Donnacha Costello play out he and his wife kindly gave me a lift back to Fairview, apologising profusely along the way for the fact that the car had a faint odour of dog (due to them owning a dog and him liking to sit in the car presumably!).
Last night I got chatting to him again after he finished supporting Speedy J for Electric City and found out that he was aghast at me not mentioning the lift home in the dog smelling car on this site. So sorry Donnacha, hope I’ve made things right now! We also talked about nerd stuff (I can’t help it, I’ve got a problem!), I was very jealous to learn he picked up a Lemur controller thing! When pressed further Donnacha also admitted he bought a new top in H&M recently, I forgot to ask whether it was natural (analogue) fibre or some nylon, polyester (digital) fabrication…..
As for the music? Well I missed Dan Mac’s set, there was a rather large queue outside the Tivoli when I arrived, I was actually going to chance my arm with a “it’s cool, I know the promoter loike!” type line but then saw three other guys do that right in front of me and get told to f-off down to the end of the line. It was only a fifteen minute wait or so, but by lord was it chilly!
The Christmas rush was definitely in effect as the dance floor was sweaty and full, Mr. Costello treating us to his catchy acidic Minimise stylings, bringing his set to a close (perhaps a tad predictably) with two of his biggest tunes, No Matter What I Do and Bear Bounces Back. He’s got this great foot-tap dance going on which made the show for me!
Mr. Jochem Paap, also known as Speedy J, was up next armed with a pair of laptops, starting off with some deep, dark and chugging techno which seemed promising but he didn’t seem to take “it” (where “it” is that metaphysical party vibe idea that cannot be properly expressed in words by this author) any further and I found myself getting bored after about twenty minutes or so. Lots of breakdowns in the right place, with his trademark swirling reverby atmosphere but not much else going on which was a bit of a shame as I’ve seen him a few times before and he’s been a lot better. One time when he played at the TBMC I got talking to his dad who he’d brought on tour with him! I asked his dad those same boring questions we ask foreign DJs (or father of DJs) like “Which crowd did you like the most?” etc, and Daddy Paap (I think his name was John?) let it slip that he thought the French were a bit ruder than other people he’d met while on tour with his son, but then quickly suggested that it’d probably just been one rude French promoter he’d run into.
So a fun night, marred a tad by Speedy’s lacklustre performance, I even left early at 2:30am to grab a taxi before the rush, I’m officially an old cranky man!
PS: Donnacha Costello’s got a CD compilation of a few select tunes from his Colour (or Colorseries as it’s incorrectly spelled on Discogs.com, where’s the “u” Donnacha? Don’t betray yoUr Irish roots!) The CD also has some great nerdy information on all the equipment used in the making of the music, and has also increased my already burning desire to buy an 808. One day my friends………one day.)