Gigs for 2025 - post your reviews here

Did a mini European Road Trip to see Opeth on their Last Will and Testament tour last weekend. Saturday night in Amsterdam AFAS Live arena, then a train to Brussels for the Sunday show in the Ancienne Belgique venue. The band were on the top of their game, new material was awesome live and some cracking oldies in the set too. Brussels just edged it as it was a smaller venue and sound was spot on.

Hmmm... The last 30-40 minutes were great as that's what they were like when i saw them years back. The previous hour though was only ok and i found myself checking the time after only 35 minutes, which isn't a great sign. Still, when yer man walked out in the striped suit i thought 'Antoine De Caunes looks well'. Plus, the minimal effort drummer impressed me as he made Charlie Watts look like Keith Moon. If they picked the best 3 or 4 tunes of the first hour and combined them with the last section it would've been an excellent 60 minute set that i'd have found far more satisfying. I'm not sure i could be bothered to go through that first hour again to hear the good stuff. I'd go see them at a festival though.

Yes, all good fun. The key board player was something else. Think I was pretty close to you. Funny, I saw two French bands this week (Nouvelle Vague) and both had two female lead vocalists - a French thing? Good to see the other act in the Academy tonight (Nieve Ella) also sold out. Got talking to a young fella (well less than half my age) on the Luas home who was at her (spotted that he had bought her merch).

Really enjoyed James Blunt in the 3Arena on Thursday night. It was a lot less depressing than anticipated and he was in a jolly mood basically taking the piss out of himself. 'Monsters' was a tear jerker and the whole 'Back to bedlam' album was great. Toploader were good and in a bit of an unusual step were James backing band. Next up is Limpbizit in the 3Arena on Tuesday

Do La Femme play much from "Paradigmes"? Big fan of that record.

Descendents/Circle Jerks/Negative Approach in another sold out night at the Academy was a bit of a mixed bag. NA were intense, powerful hardcore. They were grand but i missed the first 15 minutes of their set due to a traffic holdup. Circle Jerks were the main attraction for me and they played a pretty good 1 hour set but didn't blow me away or anything. Finally it was Descendents, a band that generally i wouldn't be a fan of but i was prepared to give them a go live. Unfortunately they didn't alter my opinion of them, i just can't stomach that whole skate/pop punk thing. The fact that they've inspired so many shite bands endears them to me even less. Out of a 27 song set i enjoyed 6 of them. Not a great return! Still at least i know for sure to never go see them again. In fairness though the crowd were well into it and the kids in the pit were loving them, but if there's one thing we know it's that the kids love a singalong. Ho-hum…

Similar situation myself - picked up a cheap last minute ticket. Didn't know much about the The Weather Station before hand and to be honest wasn't my thing. I preferred the support act (Georgia Harmer?). Interesting Stage design / graphics and I agree a very respectful audience.

Was at Nieve Ella in the Green Room of The Academy last week. Same night as La Femme so the queue was massive to get in and had me very confused for a few minutes.

The Green Room takes the prize of my least favourite venue in Dublin, hope I'm never there again. Hard to see anything once there's a crowd.

The gig was good, some weird sound at times (I didn't get that as it was perfect for the support band). The support band (Keo) were phenomenal. Think that was probably they're first time in Ireland.

Been in Academy 2 before but for not sold out gigs so no issues with it. Fortunately been to Whelans/The Grand Social etc. more often for this type of gigs.