outside on the streets of Belfast tonight, but you’d never know it inside the cosy confines of the Empire Music Hall as the great unwashed gathered here are positively cockahoop at the prospect of Damien Dempsey gracing the stage. In fact, for the thirty minutes before the singer-songwriter performs his first song there are raucous chants of “DAMO! DAMO!” ringing out around the hall and when he finally does appear, the venue is a sea of excitement and adoration.
“How ya Belfast, ready for a sing-song?” he asks in his thick Donaghmede accent (which sounds positively exotic round these parts) and that’s exactly what he provides for the guts of the next two hours. Despite the album only coming out a matter of weeks ago, the audience know every last syllable and nuance of the new stuff and it’s a testament to Dempsey’s talent for crafting powerful melodies. ‘Chris And Stevie’, a song which the singer penned for his friends who committed suicide, is a particular highlight and it’s a beautiful lament which sounds all the more potent when his voice cracks slightly with emotion during the chorus.
While some might say playing the politically-charged ‘Colony’ may have been a gamble in a city which will continue to feel the effects of “those glorious days of rule” for decades to come, for this writer it was Dempsey’s performance of the night and sounded all the more mesmerising due to its setting (the venue was a church in its previous life). On the other hand, his version of ‘The Rocky Road To Dublin’ fell a little flat, but with the likes of ‘Community’ et al in his canon and a band of truly talented musicians backing him, it was only a small blip in what was a life-affirming gig. Our next appointment with Dr. Damo can’t come soon enough.