Marah set Dublin date

Philadelphia band Marah play their only Irish gig at Whelan's of Dublin on July 19.

The band are promoting their new album, 20,000 Streets under the Sky, which is named after a Patrick Hamilton novel. Literary-minded folk that they are, they've also caught the special attention of author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity), who described Marah's debut Kids In Philly album as "like the Pogues reimagined by the E Street Band, full of fire and tunes, and soul and banjos".

According to his good self, Marah have also clocked up such high profile fans as Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle (who signed them to his E Squared label) and writers Stephen King and Greil Marcus.

Waxing lyrical about a recent Marah gig in his "Stuff I've Been Reading" Column, Hornby writes:

"I was reminded - and this happened the last time I saw them play, too – how rarely one feels included in a live show. Usually you watch, and listen, and drift off, and the band plays well or doesn’t and it doesn’t matter much either way. It can actually be a very lonely experience.

"But I felt a part of the music, and a part of the people I’d gone with, and, to cut this short before the encores, I didn’t want to read for about a fortnight afterwards. I wanted to write, but I couldn’t because of the holidays, and I wanted to listen to Marah, but I didn’t want to read no book. I was too itchy, too energized, and if young people feel like that every night of the week, then, yes, literature’s dead as a dodo."

Marah's 20,000 Streets under the Sky album hits stores on June 25.