And so the focus turned to Electric Avenue to see who would join Saccade, Lady Doll, The Coonics and Henrietta Game for the penalty shoot-out at The Village, Dublin on April 29. First up were Storyfold, the Dublin quartet who, with the excellent harmonies of twin vocalists Paddy McKenna and Lindsey Hogan, delivered their melodramatic pop with style. The driving intro of ‘My Dull Revenge’ set the pace, and with the single ‘Delphine Wakes’ they reached a stylish peak. ‘You’re Still There’ smouldered like all slow ballads should, but their decision to finish with the rather tame ‘Hasbeen’ didn’t work.
Vasco Junior opened with ‘Despised’ and went for the jugular from the off. There was no let up for ‘Don’t Want You’. ‘Fall’ was snappy too, and they unveiled their next single ‘Strawberry Flan’ as a thumpingly good effort. There’s a commendable consistency to Vasco Junior, but a little more variety on the night might have helped their competitive cause.
Sixteen Layers have clearly benefited from gigging in Canada and elsewhere, and in Niall Donnelly they have a suitably loudmouth frontman. ‘No Strings’ began their set in U2 vein, but soon turned raucous to set us up for the high-voltage riffing of ‘Torch’. ‘Hurt Me’ got the crowd in karaoke mode, before the piledriving bass of ‘Into the Sun’ and the thundering stadium rock of ‘Former You’ brought their highwire act to a tumultuous climax.
Which left the more cerebral Funzo with it all to do. Their cut-and-paste mix of pop, music hall, ska and rap got lost on the crowd somehow. ‘19’ was Madness with rap interludes, and ‘Arrested Development’ had a McCartney-style quality, while ‘Everything Makes Sense’ was an energetic knees-up. But it came as no surprise that, when the judges totted up the scores, Sixteen Layers were tops. The Village here we come.