It’s a forbidding date – no I’m not talking about Friday the 13th, I’m referring to Ash’s first Belfast date proper since the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley. An exclusive show for 400 fans and the first rock gig in Stiff Kitten nightclub, this intimate performance formed part of the 21st birthday celebrations for BBC NI radio programme, Across The Line. What’s more, the show allowed fans a taster of tracks from Twilight Of The Innocents, Ash’s first studio album as a trimmed back trio. In attendance, local and national music luminaries including Radio1 DJ, Rory O’Connell, members of the ‘Oh Yeah’ team and an unruly gaggle of journalists from Alternative Ulster, Kerrang! and your very own Hot Press. And the question on everybody’s lips, is three really the magic number?
The opening salvo is immense, an unholy trinity of tracks that ranks with the Omen trilogy in the frighteningly-good stakes. Pedal pushed firmly to the floor, ‘Burn Baby Burn’ sounds like a monster truck riding roughshod over a collection of cowering Smart Cars. It’s big and clever, the guitar riffs are downright nasty, while the snarling rhythm section is operating on ‘fuck you very much’ levels. ‘Orpheus’ meanwhile, is a brooding brutish scrum of sound, and indecently thrilling. At this stage, throwing new material into the mix seems as kind as throwing a Christian to the lions, but the power-pop in excelsis of ‘You Can’t Have It All’ proves more than capable of holding its own.
The punters are certainly enamoured, whooping and braying as Ash take us on a sight-seeing tour of their very own hit city. The set-list traverses their career, an oh-so-sweet sonic cherry pick, with ‘Angel Interceptor’ and ‘Kung Fu’ earning particularly rapturous receptions. The occasional thinness of the sound reminds us of Hatherley’s absence, but, for the most part, Ash stride manfully on. Their songwriting know-how remains undiminished, the new material a mix of more-of-this-please, panty twirling pop-punk and strange new frontiers space-rock. Incredibly, it’s some 14 years since Ash sparked into life, but, as tonight’s performance has demonstrated, they still burn brightly.