MARIA SOMERVILLE + NASHPAINTS – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 26.2.26
“Soft sheen” indeed! Some would say ‘Luster’, and that’s the title of Galway based Irish musician Maria Somerville’s second album (and debut project for the 4AD label), which dropped last April. In support of that release Maria made her way to the Green Door Store in Brighton on 25th April 2025, courtesy of Love Thy Neighbour promoters. We were in attendance that evening (Review HERE).
Now 10 months later Maria and her chums have made a welcome return to the same venue, on the final date of their UK & Ireland tour, prior to heading off to Canada and the USA next month for a 20 date jaunt. So this evening we’ve made our way along to the charismatic Green Door Store venue located beneath Brighton Mainline Railway Station, to see what’s going down!
Let’s set the mood…..Maria’s ‘Luster’ album, which includes the atmospheric and whirring dreamgaze singles ‘Spring’ and ‘Garden’, is otherworldly and yet grounded. It successfully channels her experiences on the bank of the Corrib in her native Connemara, Ireland and pays homage to the sonic tapestry woven by classic 4AD collective This Mortal Coil. Since its release, the critically acclaimed record has seen a Best New Music accolade from Pitchfork and a glowing Guardian review, among other pieces of praise such as being named one of The FADER’s ‘30 coolest artists right now’, and Clash and Loud & Quiet’s best albums of 2025.
Now that you’re in the zone, we can switch to the venue in order to ensconce yourself in the world of Maria. The performance runs for 54 minutes, from 9:06pm to 10:00pm and during this time, we are rewarded with a dozen compositions. Maria Somerville is centre front and taking care of vocals and guitar with tremolo, accompanying her is lilic on bass (stage left, our right) and Henry Earnest on drums and presets (stage right, our left). For the last handful of tunes they are joined by Jack Fanciulli (Asa Nisi Masa) on second guitar, who positions himself far right (stage left).
The musicians take to the raised stage and this time around the stage lighting is very much used sparingly, with only eight circle lights on the rear of the stage which backlight the trio and so they are coming at us out of the dry ice and darkness. In essence they are shadowy creatures hiding in plain sight, with hoodie’s raised where possible. Our photographer, David Gyokos, has certainly got his work cut out this evening!
They warm themselves and us up with an ‘Intro’ tune which certainly sets the scene of the ethereal performance. The track builds and builds, like a few others in the set. Henry has opted for drumsticks with felt tips on the end, which works rather well on both drums and cymbals. Maria’s vocals sit atop each number and are slowly delivered and she strums her guitar, which wonderfully echoes as it sings to us. The bass guitar doesn’t have that chunky Peter Hook rumbly sound, but actually sounds like another guitar. The use of foot pedals, particularly by Maria are an essential tool to her (and 4AD) sound.
A couple of cuts from the ‘Luster’ album are now performed, these being the tremolo laden ‘Garden’ and the slower head-bobbing ‘Projections’ with its silky slow vocal delivery. Selection four is listed as ‘Sea Forever’ on the setlist and I believe this track is currently unreleased. For this both Maria and lilic crouch down as they fiddle with their foot pedals prior to the initial guitar strum and then they are away. I note that ‘October Moon’ has a line through it on the setlist, so it’s been dropped for this evening due to the 10pm curfew I guess? They move onto ‘Halo’, the first of a trio from ‘Luster’, and this is the most intense tune thus far. It benefits from a heavier vibe musically, but the vocals are still sweetly slow. As a result, the crowd gave it the warmest applause thus far.
The two minute ‘Corrib’ comes next and is literally just vocals, gentle strums and quiet bass notes. After which they are joined by Jack Fanciulli on guitar for ‘Spring’, which is initially quiet with longing vocals and guitar strum, but then boom, the drums, second guitar and bass hit us with a wall of stadium filling sound. They have certainly got the punters onside as they stand and gaze at the stage. The unreleased ‘Soundtrack Jam’ follows and this features some further tremolo action, creating a pure wall of sound, which no doubt any Jesus And Mary Chain fans in the audience would have totally lapped up. The action is all in the foot pedals!
‘Réalt’ from ‘Luster’ offers a slow ethereal intro and then there’s a change of beat with contrasting cymbal and drums action, along with more dreamy vocals, with the arrival of ‘Shore’, a yet to be released tune which grows in intensity the longer it runs for. Their penultimate offering is my pick of the set, this being ‘Stonefly’ (from ‘Luster’), which initially has a rather melodic feel until Jack’s guitar screeches its way through. It has morphed into an explosive number replete with some serious Fender Jaguar guitar action from Maria. lilic kicks off the final number, ‘All My People’ from 2019’s ‘All My People’ album, which wonderfully builds into a crescendo before fading away and is an ideal way to sign off.
It’s been an understated performance that delivered exactly what the punters craved. There’s no encore and so folk make their way to the merch stall to congratulate the musicians and make their purchases, prior to heading off into the darknes…again!
Maria Somerville:
Maria Somerville – vocals, guitar
lilic – bass
Henry Earnest – drums
Jack Fanciulli (Asa Nisi Masa) – guitar
Maria Sommerville setlist:
‘Intro’ (unreleased)
‘Garden’ (from 2025 ‘Luster’ album)
‘Projections’ (from 2025 ‘Luster’ album)
‘Sea Forever’ (unreleased)
‘Halo’ (from 2025 ‘Luster’ album)
‘Corrib’ (from 2025 ‘Luster’ album)
‘Spring’ (from 2025 ‘Luster’ album)
‘Soundtrack Jam’ (unreleased)
‘Réalt’ (from 2025 ‘Luster’ album)
‘Shore’ (unreleased)
‘Stonefly’ (from 2025 ‘Luster’ album)
‘All My People’ (from 2019 ‘All My People’ album)
Support this evening comes from Nashpaints which is the solo project of Dublin based musician Finn Carraher McDonald. Thus far he has released a couple of albums, this year’s ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ and ‘Blindman The Gambler’ back in 2020. This evening is our first live encounter with him and we are treated to a 34 minute set, (from 8pm to 8:34pm) comprising 8 numbers, three-quarters of which can be found on the new album. It’s simply Finn and his guitar and a laptop for company.
The first quartet of tunes are culled from ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’, these being ‘The Kiss’, ‘The Giver’, ‘Stretching’ and ‘Tonight I’m Thinking of My Big Eyes’. Soothing twangy guitar sounds are very much the order of the day here. This creates an ethereal vibe as Finn’s multi-tracked/echoey vocals flow off the stage and verbally this greatly reminds me of the Beach Boys mixed with the wonderful EBBB, who incidentally is coming to Brighton next month – Details HERE. I’m very much enjoying Finn’s vocals and sounds and if I was to shut my eyes, it would appear to be more than a single soul up on stage in front of me. Arguably, yes, there is some backing from the laptop at the rear, but there’s foot pedal action to be had as well.
We are next treated to a couple from the ‘Blindman The Gambler’ album, these being ‘Trip’ and ‘Amo’ which are smooth, and the guitar (at times) has that wonderful echo that was used on hits such as ‘I’m In Love With A German Film Star’ by The Passions and tunes on The Cure’s ‘Faith’ album. The punters stand quietly whilst absorbing everything that is thrown at them and it’s obvious that they like what they are hearing!
The penultimate tune took me by surprise as it was a full on Stereolab vibe, complete with guitar distortion at the end. This being ‘Boyfriend First’ from ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ and very good it is too. Finn abandoned his guitar for the final part of the number and just hummed to the backing number and then continued straight into the final number ‘Burning’ which is also from ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ and it’s here that I’m reminded of the time I saw Panda Bear & Sonic Boom at the Komedia in 2023, which had a similar feel (Review HERE). Overall I would sum up Nashpaints as sounding as though EBBB had left their booming electronic beats at home.
Nashpaints:
Finn Carraher McDonald – vocals, guitar, laptop
Nashpaints setlist:
‘The Kiss’ (from 2026 ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ album)
‘The Giver’ (from 2026 ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ album)
‘Stretching’ (from 2026 ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ album)
‘Tonight I’m Thinking of My Big Eyes’ (from 2026 ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ album)
‘Trip’ (from 2020 ‘Blindman The Gambler’ album)
‘Amo’ (from 2020 ‘Blindman The Gambler’ album)
‘Boyfriend First’ (from 2026 ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ album)
‘Burning’ (from 2026 ‘Everyone Good is Called Molly’ album)
