THE LAST time Owen Pallet played the Róisín Dubh in 2009, he was operating under the name Final Fantasy. These days he goes under his birth name.
What has not changed is the Canadian singer, composer, and arranger’s distinctive approach to indie music as the violin, not the guitar or piano, is his chosen instrument. Classically trained, he brings that sensibility to his work, making his music a cerebral, intellectual, experience, that on stage is captivating, energising, and mesmeric.
Pitchfork expertly summed up the experience: “To see Pallett live is to be equally dazzled and mowed over—looping violin lines in real time, singing and playing and stomping pedals and band leading and dryly joking, all at once. You are so astonished that sometimes you forget to be moved.”
Last month, Pallet released his latest album In Conflict through the Domino label.
“The record is meant to approach ‘insanity’ in a positive way,” the artist said. “Depression, addiction, gender trouble, and the creative state are presented as positive, loveable, empathetic ways of being. Not preferable, per se, but all as equal, valid, positions that we experience, which make us human.”
Owen Pallett plays the Róisín Dubh as part of the Galway International Arts Festival, on Monday July 21 at 8pm. Tickets are available through www.giaf.com and www.roisindubh.net
To listen to the Galway Advertiser’s Owen Pallet playlist go to advertiser.ie/galway/entertainment/music