ROSEMARY MAC CABE

On Sunday night I went, courtesy of Gary, to see Joshua Radin play the Academy. I had never heard of him before – although, reallly, I’m sure I had. Don’t they say we retain some ridiculous amount of information in a segment of our brains we can’t access? Useful.

Anyway, it was a packed house: I arrived at 7pm and there was a queue right down to the junction of Abbey St and O’Connell St, but it turns out there was another gig on downstairs. I think it was all-ages, because they weren’t allowing the nippers access to the upstairs bar, and a stern-looking bouncer stopped me at the entrance to go “what age are you?”. I honestly forgot for a few seconds, my mouth was so wide open. Well, was it any cop?
Support, a one-man band by the name of Joe Echo, who you might know as the writer of Madonna’s Celebration,  took the stage at 8pm, which brings me to the main problem I have with gigs, in general. Why do you say 7pm when you mean 9.30pm, for the main act? What harm will it do if people come later? I presume it’s that punters won’t drink as many expensive beverages, but really, don’t they get very irate? Echo was sublime. Synths, repeated riffs and vocal acrobatics were fantastic – it was as close to a dance act as a man with a guitar can possibly get, and he pulled it off with aplomb. He’s back on December 17th (that link will take you directly into the Ticketmaster site, which will charge you an extortionate booking fee – be warned), and I, for one, will be in attendance.

The main man was, to say the least, charismatic. He did almost lose his sway with the crowd when he spoke about how great things are in the UK – followed by “at least I didn’t say hello, Belfast!”, a point that nobody really got. But man, did the crowd love him. A packed front-of-stage area, people rapt, the odd exceedingly annoying woman shouting “you’re so hot” as if that was the most intelligent thing she had to contribute to society.

Radin delivered a near-perfect set, if ever I’ve heard one. His well-known tunes were altered every so slightly – just enough to make each audience member feel he was delivering something fresh, something new that he had thought up just for them, while maintaining the essence of what his songs are: whisper rock. But don’t let it put you off – he does what he does and he does it well, which is no small thing in any field. And he’s a seriously good entertainer. Breaks between songs while his musicians – electric guitar, keyboard, and bass guitar alternated occasionally with a divine double bass – tuned up were filled with casually delivered anecdotes, entertaining interludes about himself, his life, his “creative process” (that is, I believe, how les artistes refer to it).

At another point, he and his band came down into the crowd and delivered an acoustic version of one of his songs (forgive me, I know no names, I was a newbie and concentrating on enjoying it and ignoring all the very loud singalongers). That might give you an idea of just how rapt the audience was.

You might not end up dancing at a Joshua Radin gig, but you will be entertained. You might be a little depressed and, if you go with your other half, you may well end up engaged. Bear that all in mind and you’re flying.

Sorry there’s no video, video – but lately I’ve started thinking it’s nice to listen to music without the distraction of some glossy, unrealistic people running around in the background. You may disagree. Feel free to tell me so, in the comments.

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