Live Report: Sky Atlas at The Grand Social

As we welcome the return of live music, it's easy to forget that this is also a momentous return for the artists themselves, as well as us in the audience. As soon as Sky Atlas took to the stage of the Grand Social last night for the launch of their debut EP, Stone, it was clear  that they were just as excited as we were to be back.

Made up of Louis Younge, a wildly versatile multi-instrumentalist who was on saxophone, fiddle AND keyboard duty, drummer Ryan McClelland, bassist Danilo Ward and lead vocalist and guitarist Lughaidh Armstrong-Moyock, Sky Atlas could have filled the Aviva Stadium with their energy and talent. Having featured in both 'On Our Radar' and our Y&E Series in recent months, this quartet are surely on their way to becoming the next Big Thing on the Irish music scene.

Opening with a soaringly heavy crescendo of lights, smoke machine, drums and saxophone, before launching into the first track, they had the crowd going in no time at all. Not that they needed much encouragement to go wild – it was the most impassioned crowd I've seen in a long time. Screams of "I love you [insert band member here]" rang out, and when poor Lughaidh remarked on how warm it was onstage, the chants of "take it off" got a bit insistent (he appeased things by undoing an extra button).

But back to the music. Sky Atlas are a band born to be seen and heard live. All four are graduates from BIMM, and all four are some of the finest musicians I've seen in a long time. It was all heavy bass and pounding drums from Danilo and Ryan respectively, overlaid by Lughaigh's delicately masterful guitar work and incredible vocals. But it was the mercurial Louis, switching from saxophone to keyboard to fiddle and back again, who held the sway of the crowd, like a multi-instrumental Pied Piper conducting the mosh pit.

The set list was a mix of tracks from the EP, 'Dream On', 'I'll See You Again', 'Empty Hands' – good on the EP, utterly sublime live – 'Stone', which had everyone singing along, plus a fair few as-yet unreleased tracks that I can only hope will be unleashed very, very soon (please) – including live fan favourite 'Hollow Embrace', one song so brand new they had only finished it the day before, and another one featuring bassist Danilo taking over vocals for a spell.

They attempted to end things on 'Threads' (and that was the point where this writer finally succumbed to the lure of the mosh pit, her first since March 2020), before bowing to the inevitable cries for "one more tune" and closing out with their first single 'News Today'. As EP launches go, it was a roaring success of a night, for a band who certainly have the talent, the look and the adoring fans to take them to soaring heights in the music world.