Dare To Share: HamsandwicH, Caoi de Barra & Shobsy Lift The Roof Off Liquor Lounge in Galway

First of all, let's talk about the venue. A plectrum’s throw from Galway's main Quay Street drag, the Liquor Lounge has a striking art deco look and rustles up a mean Old Fashioned, which is one of the reasons why Hot Press and Paddy's Share Irish Whiskey have decided to host our first Dare To Share collaborative gig there.

Another is its inviting alcove stage, which is regularly graced by some of the city's finest players.

For tonight’s opening salvo in the Dare To Share adventure, we’ve brought together HamsandwicH, Shobsy and Caoi de Barra, best known as a member of Wyvern Lingo but also an emerging solo star in her own right – and it's their job to ensure that the joint is comprehensively jumping. And so it is, from the moment they launch into a rousing ensemble version of 'Old Town’ as their first collective statement of intent.

Responding to the Paddy's Share mission statement of sharing songs and stories, we’ve asked the acts to perform both on their own and collaboratively – with that Philip Lynott chestnut just the first of the night's choice covers.

But there is original music too, of extraordinary calibre. You’d swear listening to the heavenly harmonies on Shobsy’s ‘On The Night’ that the former State Lights leader and Caoi had been singing together all their lives, whereas this is only the second time they’ve been in the same room together.

They also combine gorgeously on ‘Full Moon In Virgo’, another Shobsy original, which sounds like a proper hit single in the making.

I’ve been hearing lots of great things about the blonde-haired Dubliner and they all turn out to be true as his voice swoops and soars – and then swoops and soars some more. He has the technique to match his obvious star quality.

Shobsy gets to perform three songs solo this evening – ‘On The Night’, which emits a warm pop glow similar to Crowded House’s ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’; ‘The Last Walk Home’, which he confides is about the end of a teenage love affair and is very beautiful; and ‘Vanity’, which addresses the dark side of (anti)-social media and could have come from the pen of Freddie Mercury such is its combination of emotional heft and accompanying bravura performance.

It's not being unduly hyperbolic to say that Shobsy could soon be sitting at pop’s top table with the likes of Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi and Sam Smith.

The stories behind the songs continue with Caoi de Barra explaining how ‘Skirting Board Bonfire’ was written when she and her-ex boyfriend were so skint – and cold – that the fixtures and fittings in their bedsit had to be sacrificed.

As Wyvern Lingo fans will know, there’s a gorgeous smoky, jazzy quality to Caoi’s voice that’s impossible to resist.

‘The Quiet Of The Night’, about the way in which women are far too often made to feel unsafe and ‘Messy Head’ – the pick of a very fine Thicket EP bunch – find her in theatrical territory reminiscent of Anna Calvi, with nary a whisper to be heard from the mesmerised Liquor Lounge crowd as the moodily atmospheric drama unfolds.

Again, you’d swear Caoi and Niamh Farrell of HamsandwicH had been sharing a stage for years as they trade verses on ‘Dark Cloud’, which proves to be another of the myriad Dare To Share triumphs.

With Caoi getting a well-deserved breather, Niamh is joined by bandmates Podge and D’Arcy for a mini-HamsandwicH ‘Greatest Hits’ set, which includes their 2015 celebration of pop-disco playfulness, ‘Illuminate’; a stripped down but still banging ‘Electro-Wave’ from current album Magnify; the impossibly gorgeous ‘All Worthwhile’, which as Niamh explains soundtracks another bittersweet break-up; and what for this writer is the Kells trio’s finest ever 3mins 59secs, ‘Ants’.

It's all hands on deck again for a goosebump-inducing rendition of Wyvern Lingo’s ‘I Love You, Sadie’, which replicates the TLC-style funkiness of the recorded original – and then some!

Also getting the supergroup treatment are ‘Driven’, another Queen-esque Shobsy song about, ahem, “Fuck Boys and Fuck Girls”, and HamsandwicH’s ‘All My Blood’ which sounds almost choral in its bright new form.

Kate Bush covers tend to pale in comparison to the immaculate originals, but Niamh, Podge, D’Arcy, Shobsy and Caoi somehow succeed in making ‘Running Up That Hill’ their own: it’s greeted with an explosion of cheers at the end.

An encore was never in doubt and comes in the pulsating form of 'I Feel Love', which does both Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder proud. There is a palpable sense, as the last notes ring out, that we have been witness to something very special.

Accompanied by some of those delicious Old Fashioneds, the first Hot Press/Paddy’s Irish Whiskey Dare To Share gig has embodied all that’s magical about Irish music at the moment. Expect similar highs on February 17, when HamsandwicH, Shobsy and Caoi de Barra come together again in Dublin’s Blind Pig bar.

Now, that is going to be a night to remember...

Apply now for complimentary DARE TO SHARE tickets at https://www.hotpress.com/culture/hot-press-presents-dare-to-share-with-paddys-share-featuring-hamsandwich-caoi-de-barra-and-shobsy-in-dublin-and-galway-22944388