A.S. Fanning + Louis Brennan & The Travelling Circus of Misery

Dublin-born musicians A.S. Fanning and Louis Brennan, now based in Berlin and London, are two of the most interesting and darkest songwriters of our time. In spring 2024, they will be on the road in Germany on an extraordinary, collaborative tour: a double concert with a joint band that ironically calls itself The Travelling Circus of Misery and gives the best apocalyptic songs by A.S. Fanning and Louis Brennan a new form.

Their songwriting ranges from tragedy to farce and draws on the rich tradition of Irish poetry, themes such as displacement, death, post-colonialism and other depths of human existence. In the carefully crafted sound architecture of a large analogue rock band, pieces of music are created that are equally enchantingly beautiful, deeply sad and sometimes even funny.
Released in May 2023, A.S. Fanning's third album, Mushroom Cloud, has been described as "exactly the darkly shimmering, beautifully melancholic masterpiece [...] that Fanning has long harboured" Bedroom Disco, a "multi-layered, transparent work with enough monumental caputnik blues and psych-rock elements to keep it from possibly sinking into obscurity" musikreviews.de. The predecessor You Should Go Mad (2020) is carried by Fanning's warm baritone, which is occasionally reminiscent of Nick Cave and thematically deals primarily with mental illness, and seethes eclectically and melancholically between 60s psychedelia and gothic rock'n'roll.

Louis Brennan released his second album Love Island in November 2022. Recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios in Wales, it has been described by Lonesome Highway as "an essential album for our time". It follows his debut album Dead Capital, co-produced by A.S. Fanning in Berlin and described by Americana UK as "an outstanding album, deep, dark and attention-demanding". Brennan has performed at Ramblin Roots Revue, Red Rooster Festival, Folk In The Park and an official showcase at Americanafest UK and has built a formidable reputation on the London roots music scene as part of a loose collective of songwriters and musicians.

The concerts are part of the Zeitgeist Ireland 24 project, an initiative of Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy in Germany.

Wednesday, February 28
Kuppelhalle
Doors 7 pm / Start 8 pm
Tickets