It was always going to be hard to live up to last year’s FMC Tour, whose monster bill included a Mercury nominee (Fionn Regan), a Choice Prize winner (Jape) and an instrumental beast of a band who spend 200-odd days of the year hotfooting it around European festivals (ASIWYFA). If you ask Wikipedia, you’ll find that this year’s mob (hula rock five-piece O Emperor, sister act Heathers and brain-stewing post-rockers Adebisi Shank) don’t come with quite as impressive a back story. If you ask the Irish gig-going public, on the other hand, you’ll get an entirely different answer.
Musically, there’s very little to link O Emperor, Heathers and Adebisi Shank. Heathers’ acoustic folk is driven by punchy harmonies, Adebisi’s sound is totally wordless. O Emperor’s dreamy alt. rock tunes are soaked in Stateside influences, while Heathers remain unshakably Irish, and as for Adebisi well, they might as well have pinched their futuristic rhythms from planet Mobius. Come to think of it, the only thing that connects these three bands is a remarkable live show, but luckily, in the accepting Irish underground, just being awesome is enough to joint the dots.
O Emperor open the show, displaying only mild signs of tour-induced fatigue (it is closing night, after all.) Highlights include the seriously haunting ‘Taloned Air’ from their debut album Hither Thither, and new track ‘We Were Young’, a woozy number made all the more gorgeous by Alan Comerford’s Hawaiian-style electric slide guitar.
Launching into signature song ‘Remember When’, Heathers appear just as we remember them – dauntless, beguiling, and brimming with soul – but it’s not long before a trio of backing musicians come aboard and change the pace. Souped up with cello, guitar and drums, Ellie and Louise McNamara’s ferocious melodies sound more potent than ever, and new track ‘Find A Way’ becomes an explosive folk pop anthem. Later, they deliver a version of Beyoncé’s ‘Halo’ that blows Florence And the Machine’s shaky Live Lounge cover out of the water. Although the McNamara sisters have taken a fairly drastic measure by choosing to perform with a full band, it’s refreshing to know that their razor-sharp vocals – a handsome mongrel of diva notes and traditional Irish phrasing – are still paramount.
The Adebisi Shank live show is nothing short of legendary at this stage, powered by effects-laden tunes like the celebratory ‘International Dreambeat‘ and bat-shit insane spazz number ‘You Me‘. The game-changing threesome display limitless reserves of energy, plunging the audience into a kind of funk-induced trance, which breaks just long enough for you to pinch your skin and remind yourself that you’re in the presence of greatness (it’s long been my belief that some Shank fans remain in their pleasure coma all night long, with only their moshing bruises to prove that they were there at all).
Mid way through the set, drummer Mick Roe busts a finger open on a cymbal and doesn’t drop the beat for a moment, not that we’d expect him to. These boys are so committed to bringing the noise. We have full faith that Lar Kaye would twiddle his strings in his teeth if his arms inexplicably went numb. You won’t find three finer musicians than Lar, Vin and Mick if you scour the post-rock macrocosm, but there’s little room for nerd-outs or analysis tonight – the Adebisi Shank show is all about having a damn fine time, and in some cases, feeling invincible.
At the time of writing, team Shank are thrashing their way through their first American tour. I hope the Yanks know how lucky they are.