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Looking at Ron Sexsmith’s attire this evening – an embroidered jacket worthy of a Nashville troubadour, complemented by Chelsea boots – you’d know from what school of the song he comes. With conventional structures that allow him to tell stories and melodies as firm and as memorable as those penned by his hero Paul McCartney, his songs are grounded in the simplicity and strength of a John Prine song. Although Sexsmith hasn’t crossed over from his cult status (more covers of his songs by fellow Canadian Michael Bublé might change all that), tonight’s audience is very much cross-generational. Those who first heard many of Sexsmith’s musical forebears, such as John Prine, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, in the 1970s are here, tonight, along with the younger generation who have tuned into these songwriters through artists such Sexsmith.

A shaky start involving a busted and battered Vox amp threatens tonight’s proceedings. Opening song ‘Heart’s Desire’ falls flat and seems like an unlikely way to kick off the set. When the shimmering, infectious pop of ‘Get in Line’, from this year’s Long Player Late Bloomer, follows up that the show begins in earnest. Sexsmith’s four-man band play unobtrusively, with his voice unusually high in the mix, and this is most evident on the slow burning ‘Hard Bargain’. After a thunderous ‘Believe it When I See It’, he follows with the song he opened with at his first Dublin show in Whelan’s almost 20 years ago, ‘Wastin’ Time’.

Shy and reserved in an interview, an affable Sexsmith reaches out to his audience, playing a request submitted though his website (a beautiful version of ‘Tomorrow In Her Eyes’) and relating a story about how he initially wrote ‘Gold In Them Hills’ for Bing Crosby. A magnificent, solo acoustic version of ‘Sleeping With The Angels’, the song that, in his words, “got him through the door,” is the most special point of the night.

The highpoint of the evening is a memorable encore, comprising of ‘Whatever It Takes’ (made famous by Michael Bublé), fan favorite ‘Lebanon, Tennessee’ and ‘Every Time I Follow’. Far from being an unreliable or patchy performer, you can’t help but feel Ron Sexsmith is on the brink of a career-defining festival slot. Lord knows he’s got the songs.

Originally published by State.ie

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Those passing by The Academy on Abbey Street must think that Morrissey has gone all Americana. Fortunately for all of us inside, he hasn’t. The bespectacled young men in check shirts, of which there are many in The Academy tonight, are here to spend the evening in the company of The Hold Steady; or perhaps more aptly, Craig Finn’s America. For Finn’s America is one populated with big losers in love, killer parties, massive nights and mornings spent shaking off the remnants of last night’s party. Classic rock and punk are in harmony with one another, and tales of mall rats and little hoodrat friends slip off his tongue with ease.

On the surface, a Hold Steady gig resembles that of a Shane McGowan / Pogues gig; crazed debauchery fits in with the feel of the music, and there’s more of a house party feel to the proceedings than that of a live performance. Front man Craig Finn is animated, jovial, humble and inclusive. Frequently making eye contact with the audience and jumping around the stage like a cross between a hardcore singer and a stadium rocker, Finn’s narrative- driven lyrics adds to the intimacy of the night’s proceedings.

But something is apparently missing, and the band’s more than devoted following can spot it from a mile a way. Franz Nicolay, keyboard and piano player with the band, quit the band some time ago, and his absence is felt sharply in the band’s sound. Though The Hold Steady has beefed up their sound with the help rhythm guitarist Steve Selvidge (formerly of Memphis alt country rockers, Lucero), tunes with the central, E- Street – influenced piano lines, such as ‘Stevie Nix’, ‘Stuck Between Stations’ and ‘Chips Ahoy!’ sound empty. It’s of little consolation, but if you listen hard enough, you can hear many fans humming the piano lines to these songs.

What unfortunately also works against the band on the night is the one- dimensional feel of the setlist, which could leave a first-time listener of the band to believe that almost every song they’ve written is in the same tempo and, almost, the same key. Even songs like ‘First Night’ or ‘Citrus’ could have changed the mood a little and saved the band (and the audience) from being on the receiving end of a monotonous setlist.

The Hold Steady have, unquestionably, heart. They know what makes a good, solid rock show and, in Craig Finn, they have a front man who is fearless, playful and, crucially, has something to say. But without keyboard player Nicolay and refusing to give Finn’s lyrics the 360-degree view- musically- that they need, they’re in danger of becoming rock’s worst case scenario: a riff- heavy band that turn the amps up to 11 to compensate for what isn’t there.

Originally published on State.ie

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Playing their first ever headline show in Dublin since supporting Interpol at The Olympia in April 2005, Spoon have since been the subject of massive critical kudos (Music review aggregator Metacritic declared Spoon “Top Overall Artist of the Decade’ based on critical acclaim). Record sales in the US match critical acclaim, partly due to “The O.C. Effect” that saw 2002 single ‘The Way We Get By’ featured on the show, followed by cover features in Spin Magazine. On this side of the Atlantic, they remain the interest of Wilco/Bright Eyes/Death Cab for Cutie fans and a best-kept secret amongst other music fans.

Tonight, they draw from their seven studio albums, chiefly this year’s Billboard Top 5 recordTransference. Front man Britt Daniel and keyboard player Eric Harvey are first to take to the stage, opening the evening with an acoustic version of ‘The Mystery Zone’, which is tonight transformed into a heady, psych- folk song. Backed with keyboards that Air would kill for, Daniel’s impassioned vocal – reminiscent of Frank Black but a much broader range – is the primary force of the song. He can veer from a tenor’s roar to an angelic falsetto that looms in the background and, like Thom Yorke, Daniel uses his voice as another instrument in the band.

With clear roots in classic rock, garage rock and post punk, Spoon never actually play into the genres that have influenced them but rather make them fresh and new by refusing to appropriate the styles as so many bands have. Instead, they mix and match. ‘Someone Something’ feels like a song off The White Album but when played in the context of other Spoon’s songs tonight, it seems unmistakably like a Spoon number. Daniel’s ragged vocals, harmonious handclaps, pulsating bass lines and drummer Jim Eno’s largely conventional but equally unpredictable and shifty drums define this Spoon song.

On ‘Written in Reverse’ that they seem as if they are loose, chaotic and playing off the cuff but are an incredibly tight band that give themselves room to take the song into other places. Harvey’s bar-room piano is the focus of all the song’s rhythm, which has every limb in the audience moving from side to side. Never does the band lose sight of the rhythm and beat of the song, generated chiefly by piano rather than the bass and drums and capitalized on by Daniel’s terse, cutting guitar playing. At some points during the show, it’s hard to believe Daniel is the only guitar player on stage as he riffs and solos over a wall of distortion. Followed by crowd pleasers such as the sleazy, slow- burning, soul- funk of ‘I Turn My Camera On’, fan favorite ‘I Summon You’, breakthrough ‘The Way We Get By’ and The Supremes-meets-Teenage Fanclub of ‘You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb’, Spoon reveal themselves not only as a pop band but a throwback to many bands from the 1990s (of which they were one having formed in 1996), a time when some alternative rock bands seemed to have an endless list of either singles or potential singles in their canon.

The band’s encore is explosive with a three shot combo. First is ‘My Mathematical Mind’, which builds and builds for all of five minutes, the band keeping the tempo steady and allowing Daniel to take chunks out of his guitar. What follows is Spoon’s most infectious pop song, the mariachi pop of ‘The Underdog’, the hook of which has the humming and hollering at every chorus and finishes with an equally rousing ‘Rhythm and Soul’.

As the band leaves the stage and the lights come up on a dazed and delighted Dublin audience, the strains of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ can be heard blaring from the PA. One can’t help but feel that Spoon is still America’s best-kept secret.

Originally published by State.ie