In a live setting, Dubliner Jape (aka Richie Egan) has a demeanour that seems curiously at odds with the sound and feel of his music. His onstage movements exhibit a kind of gleeful goofiness, which is not what you expect from a purveyor of indie-flavoured electronica.
But let us not forget that the music is of primary importance, and on those terms his set – full of delightful pop playfulness and buzzing, digital melodicism – succeeds amply in lighting up Meeting House Square.
The headliner at Beck’s Fusions is the Scotsman, Kylie Minogue collaborator and electroclash hit maker Calvin Harris, who broke through with the deliciously infectious ‘Acceptable In The ‘80s’ – a track that spent a whopping 13 weeks in the UK charts It’s hard to say yet if Harris will become more than a two-or-three-hit wonder – subsequent single releases have also troubled the charts, but without achieving the same level of notoriety as his breakthrough single.
Either way, he is certainly making the most of his moment in the sun. On his first Dublin headlining show, his less-celebrated tracks are delivered with an impressive combination of confidence, energy and panache. Plus, it becomes clear that he does have a batch of decent songs, which – judged on their own terms – are more than respectable.
‘The Girls’, which actually achieved Harris’ highest UK chart placing, is catchy and likeable: a touch laddish, perhaps, but with just the right amount of self-awareness to sway the dissenters. Closer ‘Vegas’, meanwhile, is dumb and repetitive, but that’s part of its appeal: it is difficult to avoid grinning along like an eejit.
Harris’ set is short, and encore-free, but that’s to be expected. At the age of 23, he is at the beginning of a great adventure. Let’s hope he keeps coming up with cracking electro-pop tunes...