ENGINE ALLEY

The question “when’s the last time you paid for a gig?” can elicit a stammering, dumb-founded response from your average self-proclaimed music hack. Being distinctly above average, and an Engine Alley fan of some time, I show up at the Mercury Lounge for the band’s first ever New York appearance ready and willing to pay.

“It’s sold out,” says the woman stamping hands, reassuring me that I’ll get in if some people on the guest list don’t show. I watch as a mixed bag of musos get their names checked off, growing furious as my friend expresses his shock at being turned away from a show by an obscure Irish band when he’d seen Pearl Jam, Nirvana, REM and Elvis there, all on the same night, and had no problem getting in. The “Don’t you know who I am?” instinct gets the better of me and I step forward to state my case . . . and to pay my seven dollars.

I have to say right up front that I miss the funky clothes. Looking at the entirely black-clad Engine Alley on stage tonight one wonders whether there might be a few extra drum cases floating around containing five ski masks and the rewards of a pre-show bank robbery. Sure, black is hip, black never goes out of style, black makes you look thin . . . but it just doesn’t suit the eccentric nature and charisma of this Kilkenny band.

New songs about burning cars and annoying people in downstairs flats reveal that deep down Engine Alley still has a flair for accessorising. More importantly, ‘I Can’t Help You’, a cool, edgy, gritty and witty, ready-made hit renders even the fabulous ‘Infamy’ past its sell-by date. While a high proportion of the new material presented here tonight left the crowd a tad unsatisfied, the fact that the band are incorporating bluesier, pulverising sounds and ploughing ahead instead of harping on their debut album – is in itself incredibly gratifying.

Instead of behaving like many of their compatriots and bemoaning the death of “Irish rock” at the hands of dance music without admitting once and for all that a lot of Irish rock is staid and boring and deserves to die, Engine Alley have a larger world view. Anyone with a brain and a copy of Billboard can see that rock is alive and well and selling in America. It shouldn’t be too long before we can say the same of Engine Alley.