Live music review: Phosphorescent
In Ireland supporting stadium moochers the National, Georgia band Phosphorescent are taking advantage of a day off by putting on their own headline show at one of the spiritual homes of Dublin hipster-dom. The choice of venue is appropriate as, a few weeks previously, the Alabama outfit were named ‘25th most hipster band’ in the world by website Digital Music News (the ranking calculated via an obscure tally of Pitchfork.com reviews and Facebook ‘likes’).
But while the generous beards and trucker hats sported by frontman Matthew Houck and his five lieutenants chime perfectly with the setting, their music transcends lazy pigeonholing. Though nominally part of the Southern Gothic school of indie miserabalism, flashes of the unexpected constantly inform Houck’s writing. On last year’s Mucacho album his grainy voice paired with surprise electro flourishes and poppy choruses while favourites such as ‘Song For Zulu’ and ‘Terror in The Canyons’ climax in transcendental psychedelia, Houck and sidekicks lost inside soaring riffs and Neil Young style jams.
