NME are giving themselves a hernia, they say: "New York's official Coolest New Band... the most contagiously energetic NYC band of the past 10 years."

 

Songs of Praise started in 2005 as a way to inject some fun into a club culture that was becoming increasingly dull and uptight, two fingers if you will to those who were taking themselves a little too seriously. It was soon obvious that we had tapped a vein of purest mental in the Dublin scene. Rock + Roll, Punk, alternative Karaoke with DJ Montane wrecking the gaff in-between performances, a simple and somewhat daft plan.

 

 

This exhibition will pay homage to the Dutch seventeenth-century artist, Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667) and his exquisite scenes of daily life, which rank among the finest of the Dutch Golden Age. It will also highlight some of Metsu's lesser known achievements in the fields of history painting, portraiture and still life. Metsu started his career in Leiden, where he painted biblical scenes on a large format. After his move to Amsterdam in the middle of the 1650s, he changed his specialisation to intimate scenes of daily life. As Metsu's style became more meticulous in the 1660s, he focused increasingly on representing the pastimes of the upper class. He died at the age of thirty-seven, having painted a varied oeuvre of more than 130 paintings. Few of his colleagues were as versatile as Metsu and his handling of the brush was almost unrivalled. Moreover, his paintings display a unique approach to daily activities, marked by a psychological interest in the people he portrayed. An accompanying catalogue will be published to coincide with the exhibition.

 

 

Ladlane formed in 2004 in Dublin. The band features Eugene Quinn from Templeogue, Dublin on guitar/banjo/vocals, Ray Dempsey from Ballyduff, Co. Waterford on accordion and Colm Keane from somewhere in north county Dublin on fiddle/vocals.