Live Report: The west is awakened by The Saw Doctors at Electric Picnic

As a sizeable chunk of Galway and Mayo’s population descends upon the Electric Picnic's Main Stage, you’d easily forget which side of the Shannon Stradbally sits on.

As the Tuam legends stroll onstage (with lead singer Davy Carton suitably dressed in a maroon velour suit),the crowd's reception of The Saw Doctors shows that the west is truly alive and kicking at EP

The band rapidly transitions between songs, wasting no time with chat as their vintage-tinged sound inspires jiving in even the most uptight of spectators.

It’s not all high energy, however. They don’t hesitate in slowing things down to tug on the heartstrings of Mayo’s loyal (but suffering) fans with ‘To Win Just Once’. It’s been 51 years lads.

Credit: Gary Ibbotson

There’s a mixture of instruments onstage: guitars, a saxophone and drums, yes, but it’s the accordion that’s given extra appreciation as the band launch into the ‘The Joyce Country Céilí Band’.

Exclaiming in the song that they'll play the “house, the pub or the parish hall”, the movement in the crowd would imply that they can safely add festival main stage to that list.

Choosing to do musical transitions as much as spoken ones, we hear 15 second renditions of the Sunday Game’s theme song, as well as a Jimi Hedrix-esque version of  ‘Amhrán na bhFiann'.

The Saw Doctors. Credit: Gary Ibbotson

With the declaration that although officially it may be called the N83 now, he says never, Guitarist Leo Moran inspires a wave of noise and emotion from the crowd with the iconic intro of ‘N17’.

Though as the song plays, many of us in the crowd do start to wish we were on that N17, the Saw Doctors’ set evidently satisfies that desire for now as they prove that they bring a bit of the west with them wherever they go.