It may not be an ornate and highly charming church in Dingle, but something about the truly titanic line-up of the Other Voices launch, reduces the expansive Vicar St. venue to a kind of wonderfully intimate backbar.
Despite the fact that the Dublin music scene sometimes has a touch of the ‘Simpsons re-run’ to it (to some it’s fast becoming an unending succession of the same old yellow faces), there is something highly reassuring and very Irish in the venue’s smoky, boozy smell, the taste of Bulmers in the back of the throat, and the presence of these now ubiquitous artists.
Newcomer Declan O’Rourke kicks of proceedings splendidly with a taste of things to come – earthy, personal musings that hit the right note with an audience weaned on acoustic music. Both the Jimmy Cake and The Tycho Brahe – two national treasures – are a definite highlight of the evening, and leave me in no doubt that they should be playing more often (about 364 more times a year should do it).
Fresh from a bout of intense UK live activity, Simple Kid effortlessly shrugs off his ‘emperors new clothes’ label to show he’s much more than just a guy with two turntables and a microphone. The stars of Bell X1 and Turn appear to be in the ascendent, and with both on their way to South By Southwest, they should arrive in Texas with all guns blazing (as it were). David Kitt’s high-wattage aura shows little sign of dimming anytime soon if both his highly receptive audience and mellow yellow electro-pop are anything to go by. With sunny delight showman Jerry Fish headlining the evening, The Mudbug Club provide a pleasantly potent cocktail of Copacabana-influenced easy listening and calypso jazz-pop.
The atmosphere tonight has an all-back-to-mine vibe – therein, one assumes, lies the overwhelming success of the Other Voices RTE TV series.