Grant Lee Buffalo

Grant Lee Buffalo (Olympia Theatre)

The Olympia is an ornate, sedate venue, and Grant Lee Buffalo blend into the surroundings with all the conviction of Courtney Love lining up for the finals of The Rose Of Tralee. Grant Lee Buffalo look more at home in a club with sweat dripping down the walls and nothing to lean against except the back of the dangerous-looking person in front of you. And judging by the gaggle of touts outside trying to find someone who’ll sell them a ticket, they’d have had no problem filling a very large, very sweaty club indeed. But that’s it. That’s the only criticism that can be made – that the venue didn’t seem entirely appropriate.

Grant, Joey and Paul make noise enough for ten very loud people but better than this, they know when to stem the flow so that you hear all the gorgeous harmonies on ‘Happiness’ and appreciate the way ‘It Is The Life’ starts off sounding as helpless as a baby seal and ends up clubbing you over the head. They start with ‘Singalong’ from Mighty Joe Moon, follow it with the title track, and pause a moment to allow Grant time to make a comment about Dublin being one of the most hallucinogenic cities he’d ever seen – rock stars, you’ve got to love them – and a moment longer for us to admire his beautiful shiny green jacket. It takes ‘Jupiter And Teardrop’ from Fuzzy to get the audience actually moving about in their seats but blame that on the comparative newness of most of their material tonight.

After forty minutes, they’re off. Then they’re back, for a thrilling, howling rendition of ‘Fuzzy’, and back again, for ‘Last Days Of Techumsa’ and ‘Side By Side’ and something else that I neglected to make a note of because by this time, the audience was finally on its feet, going (politely) mad and revelling in the sight of Grant Lee Buffalo playing what Grant himself described as one of the finest nights of their career to date. As if we hadn’t already guessed.

• Lorraine Freeney