The Immediate live at Whelan's, Dublin + Duke Special live at An Brog, Cork

The competition might be hotting up as the Murphy’s Live battle of the bands enters the semi-final stage, but that’s nothing compared to the temperature at Whelan’s, reminding the capacity crowd that summer’s around the corner.
Still, after the place is warmed up further by tonight’s competitors, The Chapters and SuperJimenez (see the news section for the results), The Immediate take to the stage.
And let there be no doubt: they are on fire.
MC Gugai introduces them by claiming they’ve “been nominated for plenty of awards, but they’ve won our hearts,” and that couldn’t be more apt: tonight’s performance is a league or two ahead of anything they did last year. And it’s not because they’ve changed any – they still come across as intelligent, professional and bookishly nervous as they’ve always been – but this time around, they’re propped up by, well, the support of the indie scene in their hometown of Dublin. They’re one of few bands who straddle the pop-indie and oh-so-alternative-indie contingent, as proved by the mass sing-a-long for opener ‘A Ghost In This House’. With new songs sounding like the foursome aren’t about to let newbies overtake them anytime soon, fans clearly have plenty to look forward to in due course.
The next week, Cork’s An Brog hosts plenty of gig-goers from Tralee and Waterford (and one person from Offaly?) as Philtre and Ilya K battle it out. That’s not to say that headliner Duke Special doesn’t have more than his fair share of supporters. With the majority of his set featuring his piano and voice as the sole instruments, his is a performance that’s as captivating as it is beautiful, with songs that may contain full orchestra on record, like ‘Last Night I Nearly Died’, broken down into lullabies for adults. With very little to hide behind, his talent is all too clear.