Gig Review: We Cut Corners live at the Button Factory

Having listened to We Cut Corners new album, The Cadences of Others, almost obsessively before arriving to Saturday’s gig, I’m expecting the place to be packed full by the time I get there, but there’s still a bit of empty space on the floor. Don’t get me wrong, there’s more than enough of a crowd, but whoever isn’t here is missing out. The audience themselves soon prove that you don’t need a full house though, as long as you’ve got your loyal fanbase.
As We Cut Corners take to the stage in the Button Factory, the audience greets them with an amplified excitement, familiarity and a sense of pride. This isn’t just a bunch of people casually stopping by to see what’s up tonight, this is a loyal crowd of fans. Not only do they know all the words, but they sing them with enthusiasm and emotion, as though these are the songs that have gotten them through the hard times. Listening to We Cut Corners’ emotional lyrics, sung with the warbling emotion of Conall O’Breachain and John Duignan’s voices, you can see how these would be the songs blasting through your headphones on lonely nights. Loneliness is a topic that the band also approaches from a unique perspective, not with the typical melancholy wallowing, but as a more complex reflection on identity. As the song “Best Friend” states, “Solitude is my enemy and my best friend/ Life in the enclosure isn’t all that bad/ I’m using muscles that I didn’t even know I had/ Finally I’ve found somebody just like me/ I need to reassess whether I like myself/ Solitude is my enemy and my best friend.” This night, however, is anything but lonely, as the crowd comes together with a common love of the music.
We Cut Corners make more than enough sound for just a duo, with Duignan’s quirky guitar riffs from “On Avoiding People” and “Mammals,” and O’Breachain’s wailing vocals reaching new heights on songs like “Oh” and “Go Easy.” You can see that there’s a strong bond between the two musicians onstage, and there are times when performance seems to be a communication between them. It’s good to see a collaboration that works so well, and they seem to be having a good time up onstage.
Though O’Breachain spends much of the gig behind his drum kit, the acoustic numbers give him the opportunity to come out to the front of the stage. As he and Duignan strum out the chords of their song “A Pirate’s Life,” the atmosphere of the gig turns into that of a folk rock set. They also smoothly pull in a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere,” toward the end, which is probably one of the last songs you’d expect to hear at this gig. Still, their vocals float up and down the notes of the classic chorus gracefully, and somehow it works with the rest of the set.
There’s no doubt that We Cut Corners deserve the biggest stadium gig, but there’s also that sense of fan club pride that makes it clear that it wouldn’t be the same if we were in a crowd at the 3Arena. The patches of empty space on the floor turn out to be a blessing when the band jumps down from the stage to join us on the floor for a haunting performance of their acoustic song “Of Whatever.” The crowd is respectful and silent as we all gather around, bathed in the purple glow of the stage lights. The show instantly turns from a rock concert to a cosy living room set. Though part of me wants everybody to see We Cut Corners in action, the intimacy of the performance also appeals to the selfish part of me that wants to keep the music all to myself. If We Cut Corners were to make it to a stadium setting, it wouldn’t be the same, but those of us who are lucky enough to remember Saturday’s performance can say that we were around in the days when they used to play in the middle of the crowd.
We Cut Corners new album, The Cadence of Others, is available now. Check out the interview with them in the most recent issue of Hot Press.