Doug Sheridan

A few weeks into their Sunday night residency in Viva of South William Street, Doug Sheridan and his band are confident enough to open with a version of Carly Simon’s ‘Nobody Does It Better’. Whether they do or not is debatable, but this Dublin singer/songwriter and his tightly-packed rhythm section, easily captures the crowd’s attention in the intimate venue.

Doug plays heavily on his Jeff Buckley influences – mainly, perhaps, because it’s the style that best suits his own evocative lyricism and soaring vocals, punctuated by dynamic bursts of guitar. As far as his original songs are concerned, the beguiling melody of ‘Creature Comfort’ is the stand-out track, but the intensely catchy ‘Don’t Take Love Too Seriously’ is almost as striking, and amidst the urgent ‘Black Or Red’ Doug’s desire to experiment with vocal and melody lines finds the singer at one point segueing into the operatic high notes from Andrea Bocelli’s ‘No Time To Say Goodbye,’ to stunning effect.

Dallying with a diverse selection of covers in a satisfyingly long set, the band also make a fair fist of The Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘1979’ and round off the gig with their now traditional Thin Lizzy medley. A valiant and highly successful attempt to bring live music to a new venue, Doug Sheridan and co. continue their residency in the downstairs lounge at Viva throughout the month of September.