Hothouse Flowers – Ballymaloe Grainstore – Aug 12th

Hothouse Flowers Trio – Acoustic Show with Liam O’Maonlai,  Fiachna O’Braonain and Peter O’Toole

Something amazing happens when Hothouse Flowers step onto the stage – something that has been shaped by over thirty years of singing and playing all over the world, yet no two shows have ever been the same. There is a sense of musical adventure – an impulse to reach new heights and depths in music where the unspoken aim is that the band and the audience become one and the world becomes a different place for a while.

Hothouse Flowers are a rock n’roll band, Hothouse Flowers are a traditional band, Hothouse Flowers are a soul band, Hothouse Flowers are a jam band with their own organic jam spread on both sides of the bread.

Despite the bands lengthy career, which is now heading into its fourth decade there is a sense of unfinished business.  Every night they want to play the best gig they have ever played and take the musical risks that can maybe make that possible.  There are still songs to be written and emotions to share.  Whether its in a tiny club, an arena or in a festival field there is a sense that the best is yet to come.

Hothouse Flowers were recently featured in the opening scene of Amazon Prime’s hugely successful ‘The Grand Tour’ to perform their version of ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ for an invited audience in the Mojave Desert.  I Can See Clearly Now then went to Number 1 in the UK iTunes Rock Charts… a mere 26 years after its first release!

The bands recent UK tour saw them reveal new material from their brand new album ‘Let’s Do This Thing’ which is out now and available for download on the bands website.  A general release is to follow very soon.

If it wasn’t for Hothouse Flowers, the landscape of Irish rock would be a lot flatter. Critics can argue about Hothouse Flowers’s place in the canon but, for me, songs like Your Love Goes On, This Is (Your Soul), Hallelujah Jordan, Your Nature and Don’t Go rank them up there with some of U2’s finest.  And personally, I think Liam O’Maonlai possesses as sublime a singing voice as Bono or, whisper it – sacrilege of sacrileges – even Van Morrison. – click here to read the entire Irish Independent article