Most of us have, at certain times, been guilty of doing The Saw Doctors a great disservice, airbrushing them out of the Irish musical family portrait. In the meantime they’ve continued to sell more records and play to bigger audiences around the world than most of their cooler countemporaries.
While their last Villains? album was an intriguing pointer to the future, Live In Galway (also an accompanying DVD) is a celebration of the past and the present. If nothing else, it proves what great songs they’ve written over the years. Rabble rousers such as the opening ‘N17’ may have cast them as a less than subtle bash ‘em out band in the eyes of some, but they are also capable of moments of raw emotion. ‘To Win Just Once’, ‘Share The Darkness’ and ‘Clare Island’ manage to evoke a misty eyed Celtic romance without wandering down the road of cliché and in the live setting they manage to swell the heart even more. The crowd’s demands for a good thrash about cannot be ignored, however, and the album steams to a conclusion with energised versions of ‘I Useta Lover’ and ‘Hay Wrap’. It’s all very rough and ready, but that just adds to the charm, especially Davy Carlton’s inability to make it through any verse without chuckling to himself. Last year we were falling over ourselves to heap praise on a Frames live album that mixed an inspired band, great songs and a passionate audience. Would it be such a huge step to grant the Saw Doctors a similar response?