For a rock journalist, 8pm can seem like very early in the morning. We’re cranky, we haven’t had our coffee yet and in some cases we’re still nursing sore heads from sitting up all night with the new Sugababes album.
This is precisely why it’s extra sweet when an evening of spanking new local music goes right. First up to sooth my ears are Dublin foursome Saccade with some ballsy yet melodic trip-rock. Reeling guitars and causal bird noises inclusive, undisputable set highlight is thrash-happy closer ‘Wastin’ My Time’, a rendition far superior to anything I’ve heard the Northsiders produce on disc.
Next, a distinctly un-Soviet Get Me Moscow call to mind some of the better indie outfits that were knocking around the UK three years ago (see Dirty Pretty Things and early Cribs). Sure, some of this has a ring of familiarity to it, but with a truly punk heartbeat and enviable turn of phrase on their side, the Dubliners deliver a very worthy pop rock set.
With a name like Hello Moon, I’m half expecting our third performers to be accompanied by a lute-strumming three-year-old called Sunbeam. As it happens, I’m wrong about the lute, but right about the sun. Their Belle & Sebastian-esque rock boasts a confident vintage swell, while single ‘Three More Inches’ wins me over with an irresistibly awkward vocal.
With their debut album Chariot now spinning on my various music-playing devices on a daily basis, I’ve forecasted a mightily good gig from robot rock newbies The Cast Of Cheers, but I’m still not prepared for the amount of furious, seductive and dauntless rifferama these lads are able to pack into one sitting. Wasting no time finding their stride; they plug in, kill every note and shuffle off again just as fast.
Amazingly, this is only The Cast Of Cheers’ fifth ever gig, and whether the audience is aware of it or not, I clock more than a few onlooking musicians flare with jealousy at the foursome’s instrumental prowess. ‘Auricom’ and ‘I Am Lion’ are that bit more daring on stage than on Chariot, while the live looping on ‘Goose’ takes the show to a whole other level. It’s difficult to single out a moment of climax but Conor and Neil Adams’”Is there any fucking love in here?” refrain on ‘Tigerfox’ is extra special. To answer their rhetorical question, there’s a great deal of fucking love in here, and knowing that homegrown noise like this is being made regularly in rooms of 50 punters is all the love I need.