You can almost predict the set-list at a Paddy Casey gig before you walk through the doors – but that doesn’t make it any less special. Soulful ballads, booming guitar, sing-a-long choruses… the man, and his music, are just made for the stage.
The four years between the release of Amen (So Be It) and Living have been spent touring and playing all over the world. So if there’s one thing he knows how to do – it’s perform.
The curly-headed one and his group are so attuned by now they could probably play in their sleep. In fact that seems to be the case for the opening segment tonight. It’s an unusually low-key way to start a concert but tellingly Casey manages to keep his audience rapt while the gremlins are twiddled out of the system.
The opening bars of the new album’s title track is the signal for him to crank it up a couple of notches and suddenly the room is heaving. By the time he reaches the power-play crescendo of ‘Want It, Can’t Have It’, ‘Whatever Gets You True’ and ‘Saints & Sinners’ the audience have surrendered.
The encore is an even sweeter experience. ‘Sweet Suburban Sky’ still has the ability to send a thrill through a room and the on-stage presentation of the double platinum award for ‘Living’ only serves as added incentive for a frenzied version of ‘Fear’.
On an ordinary night that would already have been enough for any crowd to float home happy but rhythm band La Samba guest for a raucous ending – including a triumphant second helping of ‘Saints & Sinners’.
Because of the drawn out break between albums it’s easy to forget that Casey was ’ere before Rice, Kitt, Ritter et al. It’s nights like this that remind us.