Demo Dip goes live!

Hence away to Castlebar, where, in conjunction with the Careers in Music Seminar organised by Mayo County Council with the active support of the Western People, Mid-West Radio and hotpress, there was gig in Baja Brown’s featuring three local acts on the way up. The gig had been put together with financial backing from IMRO, and apart from giving acts an opportunity to strut their stuff in public it was a fitting end to what had been a very successful seminar.

First on stage, with the onerous task of warming up the audience, came the acoustic duo Russ and Derek under the name Reverie. One sings and plays guitar while the other plays mandolin, harmonica and whistle, (yes, one at a time). From the tentativeness of their approach I imagined that this was probably one of their first public outings.

Reverie played seven songs, including two covers, ‘The Flame Turns Blue’ and ‘Debauchery’. In many ways this was a gig too early for them. As yet they have very limited musical skills and the guitar suffered tuning problems throughout.

One very bright hope in their performance was the superbly raw and gravelled vocals which brought great expression to their songs and would be a serious asset to any band. If they put in the work they could be in it for the long haul.

Next up came Definitely Blue, a five-piece whose demos have been positively reviewed here before and for whom Pete Holidai produced an excellent single. They have another single in the can and I admire their dedication to the cause and their determination to crack the bigtime.

They bring oodles of confidence to a tight, polished, guitar-dominated rock sound. ‘World of Possibilities’ has a touch of Ramones riffing and noisy guitars, while ‘Harder’ has hints of U2 but had me musing on how it might sound played faster. The slow ‘Why Do You Make It So Hard?’ has a riff that could easily slip into ‘Whole Lotta Love’ while ‘Sunday Sunday’ has brilliant chiming guitars which were even more to the fore in ‘Buried’which has lots of dreamy open spaces, fine vocals and a slow burning fuse.

Defintely Blue have no problems in the playing and singing department, but they could do with a couple of short and to-the-point songs and they are lacking somewhat in stage presence. This requires urgent attention, otherwise they might just as well send their demo tape along to do their gigs for them.

They were followed by Dennis McCalmont, another survivor of the Demo Dip microscope. McCalmont needs no lessons in how to communicate with an audience. He’s a natural showman and he fronts a musicianly ’70s-style band and a great bunch of songs with snappy choruses. ‘Let The Spirit Move You’ is fuelled by latino percussion and rhythmic guitars that won’t give your toes a rest. He has an infectious new single ‘Songs Of Perfection’ about to be unleashed on the Irish public, complete with a fetching “sha-la-la” chorus that demands unbridled audience participation.

‘Loverboy Blues’ sports a hint of rockabilly and features some fine keyboards. Even ‘Carousel’ launched an outbreak of idiot dancing (not from me) of the kind that hasn’t been seen in the western hemisphere since those festival gigs in the late ’60s.

With tasty quality songs of the calibre of ‘Wishes’, ‘Can’t Get Deeper’, ‘Sounds So Sweet’ and ‘Heart Of Stone’ McCalmont gives clear warning that he could be a force to be reckoned with if the fates smile on him. He writes intelligent but accessible songs and knows how to turn a stage performance into a celebration.

The vast majority of the capacity audience stayed right through to the end and some even had to be advised that they did indeed own a bed. It was testament to a fine gig that reminded us that Galway doesn’t have the sole franchise on music talent west of the Shannon.

Additional credit must go to Anne McCarthy and Sean Walsh of Mayo County Council Arts Office for their dedication to the cause way beyond their job descriptions.

But now it’s back to the hi-fi.