Strand Arts Centre, Belfast
Thursday 19th October 2017
Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home. Weird, like one big happy mushroom trip.
Here is how it ran. The venue is great, the Strand Arts Centre has reimagined itself from independent cinema to an art house with both movies and a variety of music and performances. Nice big stage, great seats, and great sound.
First up a half a dozen or so short films from the NI Film Archive, shown with song composed by Stevie Scullion of tonight’s band Malojian. I think there is a coastal theme, lots of Lighthouses, Beaches but also bunny rabbits, sheep and a couple of strange old police chases. Weird.
Next up the six-piece band with vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, cello, keyboards, violins. Very chilled lovely sound mix. A mix of songs of the new album and others from previous Malojian work.
All the while this is happening the images are projected behind the band.
Sheep Dogs. Ducks. Deers. Big Harps cut into hedges. Ice Skating. Racing Cars. Marching Bands. Old Fiddlers. Tripping.
And it all worked great. Stevie Scullion has the musical ability and imagination to carry it off. His songs are strong and very well crafted, ‘Bath Tub Blues’, ‘Some New Bones’, ‘Communion Girls’, ‘Old Timer’, ‘Ambulance Song’. These are all fully formed works of the highest order.
Stevie has a very understated delivery style which should not be mistaken for lack of ability. This performance could hold its own on any stage. The band are relaxed but compliment the songs and add wonderful splashes of colour.
Great show. If you haven’t discovered the huge talent that is Stevie Scullion and Malojian then do yourself a favour and check him out either in recorded form of live without delay.
Well done Strand Arts Cinema for staging the show. It was the sort of thing would have graced a major international arts festival.