As gigs in Whelan’s go, this was a strange one. Brian McFadden was re-inventing himself. Unshaven and dressed in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, he clearly had the scruffy indie kid down.
Earlier that day he’d been pictured in The Guardian holding a copy of Astral Weeks and wearing a Zutons t-shirt. He’d spoken about crying when Kurt Cobain died, his love for Nirvana and the reasons why he felt himself and Libertine Pete Doherty were kindred spirits. Now here he was in Dublin’s venue of choice for alternative independent music to launch his debut solo album.
McFadden took to the stage just after nine o’clock and played for half an hour. Flanked by a carefully selected band he let rip into current single ‘Irish Son’. The overwhelmingly female audience lapped it up. Comfortable in his new role he sang the song as if his life, or career, depended on it. ‘Lose Lose Situation’ followed with McFadden introducing it as a song about “the weirdest year of my life”. It hummed along nicely though it felt a little earnest. McFadden’s on-stage poses and facial expressions were equally so. Every song was sung like he was travelling through a depression. Perhaps he is. Song titles like ‘Walking Disaster’ and ‘Demons’ would certainly suggest so.
The screaming girls couldn’t care less, though. They bounced along to the heavier songs and let the tears flow when McFadden returned to ballad territory on ‘True To Your Woman’ and ‘Sorry, Love Daddy’. The chants of “Bri-an, Bri-an” began and McFadden looked surprisingly uncomfortable with their affection. There was to be no smiles or witty banter tonight.
‘Real To Me’ ended the seven song set with a mass sing-a-long and a two fingered salute to his past. The screams continued and afterwards, McFadden left looking none too happy with how things went. This wasn’t the reaction he was looking for.
It’s going to take more than an album launch in Whelan’s to change that.