“Ah, hi, my name is Richie and I’m in a band called Jape,” utters Richie Egan, almost apologetically, as he saunters up to the mike for the start of this much-anticipated double header. The Jape and Redneck Manifesto man rarely raises his eyes to meet that of the expectant audience. By the time he launches into ‘How Much Light’ he’s found that their hanging on his every word.
The turning point comes when he introduces a guest bassist for the night. Most of us will know him as top Irish singer-songwriter David Kitt and indeed one punter turns to me in disbelief and queries “Did I hear that right, did he say that’s David Kitt playing bass?” Kittser undertook production duties for the opening track of Jape’s debut album The Monkey’s In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me “in his gaff” and he’s a timely addition for tonight’s performance. He bobs his head to the rhythm of his bass and there’s great interplay between himself and Egan.
“Yeah, it’s D, we’re awake now!” enthuses Egan, as the crowd starts to build for the arrival of The Redneck Manifesto. “I’ve seen them a couple of times before – they’re really good,” whispers one punter to another and with that the games begin. The Richie Egan who takes to the stage with The Redneck Manifesto is totally different from the Richie Egan who performed earlier as Jape.
Egan exudes confidence and freely banters with the rest of the band and the audience. The group open up with ‘We Still Got It’ and this is surely appropriate if the reaction from the crowd is anything to go by.
At times they sound like Franz Ferdinand, while at other times they’re redolent of Bob Marley’s Wailers in full flow.
Compositions such as album title track ‘I Am Brazil’, ‘Break Your Fingers’ and ‘Please Don’t Ask Us’ really stand out as legendary soundman Ollie Longhair makes sure the full musical effect is felt.
While I’m not wholly convinced about the phenomenon of purely instrumental bands, The Redneck Manifesto are certainly very musically competent and one can see a whole spectrum of influences. The show displayed a welcome contrast between Egan’s solo material and his work with The Manifesto. One feels that if Egan could transfer the energy from the latter into the former, the group could go stratospheric in the near future.