With Saccade and Lady Doll already having booked their spots for the JD Set grand final at The Village, Dublin on April 29, all ears turned to Limerick for the third heat.
With their tinkling xylophone, cello, guitar, violin and sumptuous vocals, Henrietta Game were clearly playing outside the box. In ‘Running Out Of Time’ and ‘Ah’ they have two classy tunes that give full voice to their luxuriant harmonies and pastoral rockisms. With influences that mix classical with folk and elements of Julie Feeney, Sigur Rose and Sufjan Stevens, they’re way beyond the rock-by-numbers game.
Chunky guitar-driven rockers Redtwelve have a passionate whirling dervish for a frontman,and with ‘Unapposed’ they took no prisoners. That being said, the ballad ‘Tethers’ didn’t quite provoke lighters aloft. They finished on a high with ‘Calling’ and made firm friends with the appreciative Dolan’s audience.
Try as they gamefully did, Macrogrizzly never quite achieved lift-off. Occasionally they hint at ZZ Top, albeit minus the luxuriant facial hair and killer tunes. With a keyboard filling out their beefy guitar sound,’Samantha Starr’ is a solid danceable effort. And their closer ‘The Insight’ sure packed a mean wallop.
Perhaps it was a serious political statement about our health service. But by dressing like surgeons Liz Is Evil brought a sense of fun to the occasion. Their powerhouse Muppets-like drummer propelled them through a frantic set that climaxed with the excellent ‘Wax Model’. With touches of Devo, The Clash and The Ramones they brought the night to a noisy and fitting conclusion. However, when word came that the judges had opted to send Henrietta Game onwards to greater glory, there were no arguments. With the pressure mounting, it’s now on to heat four in Galway.