Wallis Bird: Live at the Academy

You can’t argue with a full house. A venue filled to the rafters with Wallis Bird fans on a Friday night is, indeed, something to behold. Certainly, few homegrown artists can call on as enthusiastic and up-for- it an audience as that which the Wexford native currently enjoys.

Bounding out with a four-piece band, the diminutive Bird (now based in Berlin) is greeted with the kind of rapturous welcome usually reserved for international superstars.

“Aw, thanks, you’re a lovely bunch,” Bird beams, to howls of appreciation. “Let’s sing the fuck out of this song,” she adds, launching into an exuberant, ‘To My Bones’.

She does exactly that – while twirling around like a dervish, breaking a guitar string in the process (the first of several!). The rest of the evening is in pretty much the same vein, with maximum crowd participation at all times.

She doesn’t generally introduce songs, apart from a cursory, “you might know this one”. Cuts from new album Architect are especially well-received. The disco dance rhythms of ‘Gloria’ (“all about getting out a relationship”) go down well, as does the quirky, ‘Girls’. She pays tribute to one of her “greatest inspirations” with her version of Ani Difranco’s ‘Little Plastic Castle’; other highlights include a rowdy rendition of ‘Encore’ and fan favourite ‘Take Me Home’, from her self-titled debut.