| Uber, Label, Blowing Up The world | McGarrigles. 02/08/2003 |
Blowing Up The World, having travelled down from Donegal in true rock'n'roll form (i.e. turning up not much more than five minutes before they were due on stage) got things started. Their set seems to be improving over recently-witnessed gigs and they seem to be relaxing into the whole thing a lot more. Energetic, sometimes heavy and sometimes melodic, it's all rock music. The vocals on some of the number (in my limited little brain, at least) sound more and more like 'Sting' on that Dire Straits track where he sings "I want my MTV...". Half an hour later it was all over. Was it worth the trip? Who knows. Put it all down to exprience. At least they got their petrol money out of the gig!
Label jumped in with a bit more heavy (heavier?) rock with a little twist of grunge thrown in. Some of Label's songs are very good (shock, horror!) when you can figure out what's in the lyrics. In this case the venue just didn't seem to be able for the volume that Label squeezed from the less-than-1K rig but the paying punters seemed to love it. I got the impression that volume was, to these hardy afficionados, much more important than lyrical ability. The poor lads from Label then had to hop in their van and drive back to Dublin, but not before the end of the gig.
uber, to the surprise of some of the punters, didn;t follow suit and go even louder. On the contrary, uber's music is much more introspective in it's presentation. That's not to suggest it was boring or Smiths-esque, more like Depeche Mode on steroids. Running through their usual set list, we arrived at the end of the show, before I collared a member of staff and we were eventually allowed to carry on for another little while. Wouldn;t get that happening in Dublin where the venue's often take the door off the likes of poorold us at 10.30pm! On uber went with a few covers, including the recent Special Olympics 'theme' "We could be heroes", which everyone seemed to like, and sing along to (at least in the chorus). It was a fitting end to the set and uber had again won over some of the music loving punters to their way of thinking.
And the less said about the baldy guy at the window, and his 'exotic' smokes, the better ;-)