Environmental do-gooders Friends Of The Earth and promoters Turning Pirate combined forces (at the risk of recalling the Captain Planet intro) on Earth Day, April 22 for what they dubbed “the mother of all gigs”. This, it seems, means two things; Ireland’s best-loved alt. folk heroes together on one stage and lots of jolly fat green stickers.
Amid talk of Mother Nature clasping us all to her “leafy lesbian bosom” (the hilariously bonkers MC churns out gems like this all night), the festivities kick off with shiny new troubadour on the block Rhob Cunningham, aka Our Little Secrets, whose soulful, sweeping melodies bring us to a place of instant pleasure. With delicate lament ‘Naturesway’, he’s got us firmly between his teeth.
Edmund Enright has decided to reject his Mundy moniker for the FOTE gig, noting that with his upcoming covers album, he wants to “get away” from his current image (he mockingly hums ‘Galway Girl’, just in case we weren’t sure). The covers-heavy set includes a sweetly hushed version of ‘Kathy’s Song’ which sees Cunningham play Garfunkel to Enright’s Paul Simon.
A proudly twitchy performance from The Ambience Affair is the most out and out rock ‘n’ roll we see tonight, with Jamie Clarke’s inspired looping (and other assorted trickery) propelling proceedings forward with gusto.
Next, headliner and lady of the (Earth) hour Lisa Hannigan takes to the stage with an assortment of glocks and whistles. The starry-eyed songstress is sounding as divinely husky as ever, with spooky newbie ‘Passenger’ holding up well against more seasoned numbers like ‘Lille’.
At this point MC Crazy Horse fumbles back onto the stage, raving that the night is but a piglet. What follows is a game of musical chairs (in every possible sense of the phrase), with our motley collective chopping and changing partners more than a PGA Tour key party.
Highlights from the flower power variety hour include Lisa and Rhob breaking every heart in the joint with Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love’ and the honky tonk rapture Gavin Glass’ vocals bring to ‘Folsom Prison’. But the thigh-slapping Hallelujah! moment comes from Ms. Hannigan’s trumpeter Donagh Molloy who joins Roesy for a rousing rendition of Cab Calloway classic ‘Minnie The Moocher’ and it’s one of the most vibrant throwbacks in recent memory.
Good vibrations? Check. Talented troop of musicians? Check. More quirky covers than breakfast at Ikea? You betcha. If you were able to get beyond the irony of the constant shift between blaring air conditioning and stifling central heating on the Whelan’s floor, it all made for a pretty special night. And - what’s more - all in aid of one very special lesbian.