live in London

As he left the stage to rapturous applause and chants of ‘Paddy, Paddy’ it seemed somewhat odd that Paddy Casey would later reflect on this, his first London gig since the release of Living, as the worst of his current tour. Evidently a sensitive soul, a subdued Casey arrived at his end of tour party with a series of unremarkable errors playing upon his mind and hampering what should have been a night of celebration. Sound problems and broken strings frustrated the Dublin songwriter throughout, and while at times it felt like he had effectively left the building, he still did enough to win over what was a typically tough London crowd. Opening with ‘Sweet Suburban Sky’, Casey immediately provoked silence and caught an unusually attentive audience at their most vulnerable. ‘Livin’ followed and was amply aided by the presence of Jonathan Mulholland on flute. By ‘All In A Day’ though, the sound problems had begun and the audience’s initial burst of enthusiasm began to waver. ‘Whatever Gets You Through’ should have re-ignited things. However, problems with the sound persisted and it lacked the punch it delivers on record. The crowd were by now increasingly losing interest, and the slow burning ‘Anyone Yet To Come’ came at a time when the tempo needed to be upped. Casey duly complied, yet a feverish start to ‘Promised Land’ was scuppered by a broken string, a fate which also befell ‘Saints And Sinners.’ As a result Casey was finding it increasingly difficult to settle into the performance. Fate, or bad strings, had displaced his appetite and, despite his best efforts, he seemed to be going through the motions. A well executed version of Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya’ rounded the night off sending the crowd into a frenzy and home with a smile. It mightn’t have been a vintage performance, but if Casey continues to elicit such a response, even on an off day, the UK may yet be for the taking.