Maud in Cahoots, Bewley’s Café Theatre, 26 May 2010 and The Mercantile Bar, 30 May 2010

Having only heard them for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I’m now such a fan of unsigned band Maud in Cahoots that last week I went to see them twice. First, in the intimate setting of Bewley’s Café Theatre on Wednesday, and then again last night at The Mercantile Bar.

Both shows saw transplanted Dubliners Maud and Zoe Reardon, who now live in New York’s more hipster than thou Lower East Side, accompanied not by the usual boys in Cahoots, but by a gang of musicians they’d quickly gathered and rehearsed for this short trip home. It says something about the lads’ musicianship, and the girls’ writing abilities that, had we not been told, no-one would have noticed.

The Reardon’s craft unique songs that convey the high emotion of being in your early twenties in the big city, with relationship anxiety in the form of bad boyfriends and worse female friends, being a recurrent theme in songs like “Push Me Under” and “LES Bitches”. Despite being a slightly under-confident frontwoman, Maud has the kind of big, gorgeously toned soul voice and blonde good looks that would probably see her succeed as a pop star even if she could not write her own songs. As it is though, she’s likely to become that rare female pop beast; one who works hard then succeeds on her own terms.

The band’s myspace (www.myspace.com/maudincahoots) describes them as combining motown, soul and pop. In fact, their use of violin, cello, piano and a tuba to fill out their sound, renders it far more powerful and dramatic. It’s clear that, despite being unsigned (why?), they are already far too developed to be playing these sort of venues, literally sounding too big for them.

We recommend getting on this particular bandwagon early. If the Reardon sisters become as big as they deserve to, you may soon struggle to get tickets.