Blue Monday

Blue Monday (The Da Club, Dublin)

With a Dave Fanning session already under their belts, you’d expect a certain level of professionalism from Blue Monday, and sure enough, they produce an extremely solid if not entirely innovative performance tonight.

That said, the quartet’s tendency to dip erratically into a number of musical genres (rock, punk and blues) rather works against them with the set sometimes wandering into incoherent territory. On the other hand, when they hit their natural flow, they border on the blistering. ‘Obsession’ and ‘Us Against The World’ exemplified this. The meandering melodies were perfectly set in relief by some very accomplished lead play, accompanied by some 90-mile-an-hour basslines.

For every cracker in their repertoire, though, there is a dud. ‘New Life’ and ‘You Should Know Me Better By Now’ sound like the offerings of an ’80s U2 tribute band, with the former song’s intro seemingly lifted straight off ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’.

Blue Monday have one major saving grace in their charismatic frontman*. His stage act includes a cabinet-top Jerry Lee Lewis duck-walk and numerous forays into the murky corners of the venue. A shame, then, that such zeal is wasted on the minute crowd. During a climactic blues number, he attempts to get a stadium rock-type chant going; the collective enthusiasm of the response is less than overwhelming.

Blue Monday have the makings of a fine band: ample live energy, technically brilliant ability on their instruments and (some) solid songs, but a little bit of innovation wouldn’t go amiss. Their current rehashing of tried and tested rock formulae just doesn’t amount to the sum of its parts. A bit too unadventurous, all in all.

• Cian Doherty