The Best Of The Garage Gigs

The Best of the Garage Gig weekender proved that for all the hype surrounding Witnness, for Dublin’s music fraternity all roads still lead to Whelan’s.Baby Jenks is the first of a motley crew of eight acts to perform. Floppy-haired singer Gary Reddy eases the crowd in with a range of vocal pirouettes reminiscent of Thom Yorke, along with a series of gentle rock ballads.

Second up is Ali, who’ve proved to be the highlight of the first night. Playing solid originals along with Cranberries crowd pleaser ‘Zombie’, the female foursome is a force to be reckoned with. Lead guitarist Steff Caffrey blows Whelan’s away with a blast of frenzied guitar riffs and makes you wish there were more female rock acts of this quality around.
Bringing the sound down a notch, Shine play a set heavily influenced by Oasis and treat the audience to some impressive guitar solos courtesy of Gavin Bergin and Fergus Byrne. Singer Keith Murphy, meanwhile, chips in with some stunning mouth organ wizardry, all of which makes for a very lively stage performance.

Wearing shades and dancing like Bez, Alan Tierney of No Logo dedicates a song to people who wear sunglasses indoors. Bono, where are you? A frenzied group of performers, No Logo entertain themselves and the crowd with a mix of frenzied ska, crotchless trousers and anthemic rock.

Taking over the stage, The Wayward is an imposing five-piece with deep echoing vocals from Stephen Kelch. The rhythm section play likes dervishes, offering strong support to the corrosive, dual-pronged guitar assault which dominates the group’s sound.
There are more dedications from the floor, this time from Payload to Barry White. Tributes aside, this band knows how to enjoy themselves. Veering from hard luck lyrics to disco beats, Payload lock hard on fun loving tunes.
As their name would suggest, Cat Piano are a group of cool cats with a distinctive ’70s sound and happy lyrics which ooze feelgood niceties. Picture yourself strolling the sun-dappled streets of Chicago with Henry Mancini on the headphones and you’re almost there.

Next up are Wendimiller, a hard rock outfit from Dundalk. The sandman is a cruel taskmaster however and as the group prepare to go on, much of the crowd has already left the venue.

With the group celebrating the release of their debut album, however, they refuse to let the minimal turnout dampen their spirits, and duly storm through a thumping set. Wendimiller are undoubtedly the highlight of the weekend and it won’t be long before they add to their strong Northern fan base.