ASLAN

ASLAN (Tramps, New York)

IT MIGHT as well have been Dublin.

With an overwhelmingly emigrant (not to mention ridiculously receptive) crowd at their disposal, Aslan made Tramps feel unnervingly like a bit of Ireland here in the States.

Audience members – and there were at least three hundred of them – hooted, howled, and sung along passionately to familiar tunes with only the slightest prompting, and the demand for an encore shamelessly took the form of ‘Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole’.

The band were in equally fine form, filling the spacious venue with a surprisingly rich pop groove, but displayed disturbing masochistic tendencies. With one member climbing on amps and wielding his guitar in a manner more suited to a Bryan Adams video, and a scrawny Christy Dignam exposing his upper body for all to see, the band somehow managed to bring stadium rock to a regular club venue – and lord only knows why anyone would want to do that.

Nonetheless, the evening proved remarkably enjoyable and uplifting. A cover of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Angie’ marked a highpoint, as did the second (and closing) airing of ‘Crazy World’, a song that should (if the Tramps crowd are any indication) bring the band the same kind of success here that they’ve seen in their homeland.

It might as well have been Dublin. But, you see, the important thing is that it wasn’t.

• Tara McCarthy