The Breeders (Tivoli, Dublin)

It was Halloween by the time the Breeders hitched up their guitars and politely eased their way into ‘No Aloha’, one of the slower and spacier songs from the more than excellent Last Splash, their current and second disc. By the time they winded up the set with The Beatles’ ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’, it was as if everyone in the packed attendance had been sprinkled with some of that old good time magic: the genius of great music played with love and commitment, and carried off with the utmost intelligence and style.

Kim Deal sings with great deliberation. You can see her listening to the nuances of her words and reinforcing their personal significance as she twists them out. On the heavenly melodic ‘One Divine Hammer’ she dreams as she enunciates, her face is a wishing well. ‘When I Was A Painter’, from the first record Pod, and, of course, ‘Cannonball’ where she demonically threatens to gobble the mike in order to growl out the monstrously primal opening lines of “Ahooh Ahooh...” seem to blow her body and soul to beautiful damnation.

To give her a break Kelley, in mockingly sister-jealous tones, got in on the act and proceeded to charm us all with her deadbeat ‘I Just Wanna Get Along’ and for the first of the two tunes of the encore, the gorgeously trashy ‘Roi’, drummer Jim MacPherson swapped places with Josephine Wiggs and whispered sweet nothings into Kelley’s ear.

After the third song, ‘Hellbound’, of this All Hallows Eve, Kim asked us if we were warm enough. By the end of the night there must have been very few who weren’t scorched by Kim Deal’s fire. It’s so fitting really that it should be so. After all, women, perceived as witches of a different colour to those of our childhood iconography, were burned at the stake for far less than singing inflammable arias about sex, drugs, romance and rock n’ roll. Only thing is the Breeders singe with licks of ecstasy not agony.

P.S: The surprise support band tonight was Grant Lee Buffalo. Calling themselves ‘Hag’ they ran through five or six songs and were fucking brilliant.

• Patrick Brennan