{"id":581939,"date":"2026-08-03T15:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T15:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581939\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T15:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T15:07:15","slug":"rois-at-all-together-now-2026-traditional-keening-like-youve-never-heard-it-before-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581939\/","title":{"rendered":"R\u00f3is at All Together Now 2026: Traditional keening like you\u2019ve never heard it before \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

R\u00f3isFlourish with District Music, Saturday\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2bea<\/p>\n

R\u00f3is<\/a> arrives onstage dressed like a Victorian widow: a long black dress, black lace veil obscuring her face. Behind her, the guitarist and drummer are similarly elegant but anonymous, their features concealed beneath full black masks. The visual language perfectly complements the music\u2019s neo-Celticism, drawing on traditional Irish forms but filtering them through something creepier and a touch futuristic: ancient folk ritual that\u2019s survived into a post-apocalyptic world.<\/p>\n

Much of the All Together Now<\/a> set draws from her latest release, Mo L\u00e9an. The opening stretch unfolds through textured, dreamlike arrangements, traditional keening refracted through electronic production, drones and spacious percussion. R\u00f3is has an extraordinary voice, both intimate and ritualistic, and she inhabits the ethereal energy of the songs. Like the costumes, they\u2019re acts of channelling, reaching back into an imagined past, but you also can\u2019t help but wonder if it\u2019s a tactic, a way of withholding anything personal or risky.<\/p>\n

The whole neo-Celtic vibe is a compelling, if not very novel, visual and musical vocabulary, but it begins to feel limiting when every song occupies the same haunted register.<\/p>\n

\"RóisR\u00f3is performing on the Flourish Stage at All Together Now. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill<\/p>\n

The turning point comes midway through the set with the dancier Did Ye Ever Get the Ride at the Wake? which jolts the crowd awake, puncturing the solemnity. Suddenly people are dancing, not just swaying. That energy only builds with a thrilling cover of Donna Summer\u2019s I Feel Love. Rather than feeling like an ironic detour, it reveals another side of R\u00f3is\u2019s musical imagination, suggesting possibilities beyond the aesthetic she has established.<\/p>\n

When she allows the eclecticism of her own musical tastes in, it\u2019s a breath of oxygen. A very good show, and an exciting glimpse of the artist R\u00f3is could become: one willing to let unexpected influences collide, opening up musical territory that\u2019s freer and more unpredictable.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0All Together Now 2026 highs and lows: Kneecap, a Greta Thunberg appearance, and endless Portaloo queuesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"R\u00f3isFlourish with District Music, Saturday\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2bea R\u00f3is arrives onstage dressed like a Victorian widow: a long black dress, black…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[99309,93,61,60,6513],"class_list":["post-581939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-all-together-now-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-waterford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}