Live Review: Declan McKenna at the Academy

Teenage pop star Declan McKenna wants you to listen to his generation. The driving message behind his current tour has been young voter registration, especially with the general election fast approaching in the U.K. Onstage at the Academy on a Friday night, McKenna even still tells the crowd of Dublin teens, “I’m not sure when your next election is, but make sure you turn out.” He’s commanding as he stands in front of the mic with glittering Bowie-esque makeup and orange nail polish, though he’s only wearing a grey t-shirt and baggy white pants. Though the makeup, the glitter cannon he fires off immediately after coming out on stage, and the skull-splitting screams of the audience set the stage for feel-good teenage pop anthems, McKenna’s songs also deal with injustices that impact both his generation and the greater world. There’s “Paracetamol”, which McKenna cites as inspired by the suicide of transgender girl Leelah Alcorn in 2014, though it’s “Brazil”, about the impact of the World Cup on Brazil’s lower-income population, that got him recognition in 2015. It’s misleadingly catchy on first listen, but the minor notes in the descending guitar riffs get the message across just as well as the lyrics, and as the audience at the Academy proves, you can still dance to it. Even the anthemic “The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home” deals with the disillusionment of the younger generation, and the voices of the youth that are excluded from political discussions. And still, it’s a banger, and the crowd knows every word. McKenna launches into some crowd-surfing not just once but twice, though he’s almost scraping the low ceilings of the Academy’s Green Room. It’s a hell of a party until it ends all too soon, with McKenna’s set only clocking in at about an hour, no encore. Maybe he’s still young and he’s got more songs to write, but it still seems like the show was cut a bit too short.