The Original Rudeboys

There is something irresistible about these boys. In a packed Sugar Club, a diverse and clearly excited audience goes crazy, even when the projection screen shows a pre-gig video recounting The Original Rudeboys’ Story So Far. When the actual band appear on stage, the whole place erupts into wild cheering. But I see no mega rock stars: there’s just three young boys whose astonishment at the crowd’s enthusiastic welcome is written all over their faces.
When the first chords of ‘Sunny Days’ are heard, everyone starts singing along, this reviewer included. The quality of the sound is excellent, their tunes are catchy, the rap lyrics honest and emotive. As for the ukelele, well, it rocks. Everything about them is wonderfully unpretentious.

With no album out yet and just a few songs uploaded on YouTube, the boys have to rely heavily on new material and perform a few covers to fill the set. No big deal. In most gigs there is an awkward moment when fresh-from-the-oven songs are presented to fans for the first time and everyone gets bored. And more often than not, even the best bands screw up their new songs when they perform them live. With The Original Rudeboys, it doesn’t matter if a song is new or not. They all sound familiar from the very first listen. And they perform them flawlessly – or at least that’s the impression we get.

The Dublin trio save the best for the end. When they finally sing their hit of more than 134,000 views on YouTube, ‘Stars In Her Eyes’, there is only one thing left for fans to do. Everyone gets up from their seats and starts dancing. It’s a great feeling to leave a gig with a smile all over your face. On Friday night at the Sugar Club, we all did.