As Susan O’Neill takes her place, alone in the centre of the stage, trumpet in hand, basking in a ray of white light, Vicar Street is quiet, the air heavy with anticipation.

In gentle notes, only accompanied by a keyboard, the musician launches into the track ‘You Are’, and, despite the empty stage, the sound of her voice is all-encompassing, powerful, and incredibly rousing.

When O'Neill sings the words “you are the essence of the new, the old,” I am immediately reminded of the conversation we had last month, where she explained that with every gig – but especially with iconic venues like Vicar Street — she attempts to “fill that space with something that's worthwhile.” Whether accompanied by a full band or singing accapella, the singer takes over the room with impressive ease, silky voice, guitar arpeggios and eloquent storytelling resonating against the walls of the room.

Susan ONeill at Vicar Street on May 15th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

If O’Neill is a master at making the most minimalist of sounds feel big and compelling, the tunes that she plays with her band are just as vivid, delicately layered with gentle rhythmic sections and soft guitar sounds. In a complex set up of pedals and microphones, the singer also records her own harmonies live on stage, offering uniquely textured soundscapes that serve the emotional depth of her setlist with inimitable finesse.

After a few tracks, Susan greets her audience with a smile, and while she tunes her guitar explains that she never prepares a setlist for her gigs: “I always think that each night can be its own fingerprint.”

Susan ONeill at Vicar Street on May 15th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

This unruly approach is also one that she brilliantly applies to her songwriting, where she tends to avoid traditional folk structures, instead choosing experimental melodies and unexpected instrumentals, like the jazzy piano section on ‘Carry My Song’. In fact, while listening to the set, I find myself trying to guess what note, tone or melody might follow – and repeatedly failing, as if O’Neill was always one step ahead of her listeners.

This anarchic way of performing and writing is one that keeps taking you by surprise for the entirety of the gig. By all means, the sound is too uncontrollable to be labeled as a comfortable listen, yet it is impossible not to sit back and let yourself be transported by the wave of emotions that Susan, her stirringly raspy voice and poignantly poetic songwriting, throws your way, especially on tracks like ‘Tijuana’.

Susan ONeill at Vicar Street on May 15th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

About half-way through the show, special guest Mick Flannery joins O’Neill on stage to perform tracks from their 2021 duet album In The Game. Through tunes like ‘Trouble’, ‘Baby Talk’ or ‘Ghost’, the singers’ voices blend together in a gorgeous tapestry of grace and brightness.

When speaking to Hot Press a few weeks ago, O’Neill had explained her love of collaborative work by saying that “other people will often bring a song somewhere that I didn't necessarily know it could go.” Indeed, these few duet songs mark a definitive departure from the rest of the setlist, but are still distinctively her own, Susan’s trademark melodic elegance unmistakable.

Susan ONeill at Vicar Street on May 15th, 2025. Copyright Abigail Ring/ hotpress.com

Despite being unwaveringly sentimental, the musician’s songs never feel cheap or overdone, partly thanks to a carefully crafted recipe where major and minor chords are gracefully interwoven to offer maximal emotional impact. This fact particularly jumps out during the performance of ‘Everyone’s Blind’, where a curiously joyful melody meets somber lyricism. Here, instead of fully committing to desperate feelings, O’Neill offers the much more interesting perspective of looking for the joy within the sadness.

Wrapping up the gig with a few more spellbinding tunes, now accompanied by her full band and two additional backup singers, O’Neill leaves her Vicar Street audience wide-eyed and warm, the feeling of a gentle emotional catharsis still bubbling in the chest.