Stephen Malkmus

Unsurprisingly, they are still laying down carpets in Dublin’s newest venue minutes before show time. The pints taste vile and the sound is fairly ropey in places. However despite the rather annoying teething problems, the good news is that Dublin’s newest live music venue impressively cuts it. No stupid columns and unnecessary lines you can’t cross – just a simple and direct view of the stage in an uncluttered and atmospheric environment.

Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus does the opening night honours in style with a set essayed from his debut album and a few newies. Essentially, this could be Pavement with a different backing band and new bunch of songs, which suits most of us damn fine despite the non-existence of back catalogue favourites.

But while Pavement undoubtedly made at least three classic albums, they never were much of live act. Similarly, Malkmus and his new band buddies fall flat in all the wrong places, spoiling excellent numbers such as ‘Trojan Curfew’ and current single ‘Jenny And The Ess Dog’. Bizarrely, Malkmus is upstaged by his girlfriend Heather Larimer, as she coverts round the stage bouncing and writhing like an indie boys’ wet dream. It is an entertaining if very uneven show, but the really exciting prospect is how good Spiritualized could be in here.