The Joy Gallery Launch
The Joy Gallery, part of the RedSpace facility, opened last Tuesday with a slew of bands, installations and free wine (always appreciated). I trudged out there in the biblical rain to get the low-down on Dublin’s latest creative space and check out the musical talent heading up its opening night.
Located in Rutland Place, right at the top of O’Connell Street opposite the Gate Theatre, The Joy Gallery provided a warm welcome. I’ll admit that I was a little late (due to the aformentioned miserable weather) so I missed the opening act The Good Time Maritimes. However I did get to see a short video of them performing later in the night. They’re a piano and guitar twosome who collaborated with dancer Jenny Murray. Due to lack of sound on the video I haven’t the foggiest what they sounded like. So moving on swiftly…
As I arrived Tap Tap Click Click were just starting up, an all female five-piece from Fairview. Experimental is the word. Muffled whispers rolled back and forth, mixed now and again with keening vocals. Keys and strings droned and groaned, all the while the drums tapped along dutifully. Actually Tap Tap Click Click left me a little cold and I was beginning to wonder what I’d got myself into.
Thankfully over in the Live Room, lit with gently pulsing fairylights to give it a carnivalesque feel, Rory Grubb and the Mammals were just warming up. Literally, it was sweltering in there. Yet folks still crowded in to hear Grubb and the Mammals play through a wonderful set of indie-folk songs. Grubb’s voice lies somewhere in between Mark Kozelek and David Kitt and while he stuck to guitar and keys the Mammals accompanied him with harp, accordian and double bass. There was some superfluous use of a bicycle wheel, tapped, drummed and cleverly looped. But it didn’t distract from the elegance of the music. ‘Floating’ in particular was a lovely track. After Grubb finished El Prehome Indefinit (one member of the Mammals) played some lovely Mallorcan Folk music.
Following on from that wonderful aside I made my way back into the Main Room to catch the performance piece by La Vie En Rose Lawless. I was dubious, but it was OK, after all it was cabaret! She was very funny and entertaining, with some great jokes, good songs and little sing-along bits too. She performed her entirely her own songs, ‘Philosophy Man’ was hilarious, yet still ended on the famous ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ in fine cabaret style.
So after the experimental noises, indie-acoustic songwriters, Mallorcan folk and cabaret the Joy Gallery organisers obviously decided to mix it up just one bit more with You’re Only Massive & Queen Kong’s electro rap rounding off the night. It might have been the free wine, but it was probably the music, as they managed to get even the stuffiest of arty types dancing, with even a bit of crowd surfing thrown in. Overall it was a great end to the evening, which had begun to feel like a particularly hip house-party. But what really capped the night off was the fact that when I left, it had stopped raining.
