music

DV8 at the Baggot Inn and Sides

DV8, one of Ireland's best unsigned, up-and-coming young bands played a marvellous gig recently at Sides Nightclub, and later on, on the 17th of May they appeared at the Baggot Inn. They have also appeared at the Trinity Ball, and aroused much interest among the A&R men.

The Sides gig took place on a Thursday night in early May. They played to a full house, suitably warmed up by Dublin's best DJ, Liam Fitzpatrick. Unlike other bands, DV8 made good use of the lighting rig that they brought in for the occasion. Coupled with the impeccable sound quality that is normally only distinguished by its absence, this was the best gig in Sides since the fire, purely on technical merits alone.

However, leaving technical considerations alone, it was still the best gig there in a long time. The set of mostly original songs, written by Tim Pitt and Mandy Glass, proved to be exciting and fresh and highly danceable, as demonstrated by the audience. The songs themselves consisted of such numbers as "Don't be Fooled by Love", "Sensibility", "Love/Life/ Lust", "New Age Love", "Lover Part 2 ", "That Man Was My Hero" and a cover of "Money, Money, Money". All of the original material was of definite Top 20 potential and no doubt, some day soon, DV8 will be in that league, with other electro-pop groups, such as Erasure, Depeche Mode and Soft Cell. Particularly memorable were "New Age Love" and "Love! Life/Lust", which gave Niall Shanahan a marvellous opportunity to show off his vocal talents. Their cover of the classic "Money, Money, Money" had some wonderful instrumental touches added by Mr. Pitt. They received a rapturous ovation and gave an encore of "Love!Life!Lust" and "Sensibility" before finally leaving the stage.

The Baggot gig was only about half an hour long, and didn't give them enough time to show off their remarkable versatility, but they still managed to include some new material in the set. The Baggot's sound system and their house engineer didn't help the band too much, but they still managed to deliver the goods and get the feet moving.

They are due back at the Baggot on the 28th of June and in Sides at a date to be confirmed. My advice to any fans of good music is to see them as soon as possible, before they are snatched up by some big record company and will only be visible on Top of the Pops.

Tony Murphy

ERASURE AT THE OLYMPIC BALLROOM

Although the doors weren't scheduled to open until 8.00 p.m., there was a queue of about 50 outside the Olympic Ballroom at 7 p.m. on the night of the Erasure concert. So many more concertgoers were to be found queueing up for drinks in the pubs around Camden St. I had begun to wonder what I had let myself in for!!?

Slightly wary, I entered the main mob of what, for the most part, were drunken teenagers (and quickly exited again), opting for the balcony, which gave the best view (and the least likely place to get crushed to death). Apart from containing quite a lot of those cider-full school-kids, the crowd also held numerous trendy, yuppietype "bi's" (is that a dirty word?) whom one can see most Fridays/Saturdays in Sides. Also very much in evidence was the NGF Youth Group, several of whom were up at the front of the stage, with all the 200 or so MALE groupies.

The stage consisted of a number of raised levels, with two lighting trusses rising from the sides and a 3/4 wrap-around cyclarama at the back (i.e. a big white screen). The lighting rig itself consisted mainly of 300W pars., with some IK Lekos thrown in. The eye. was lit by a series of quad IK linear floods, plus 4 Carousels, which projected a series of (slightly dim?) images, including an interesting lighthouse, complete with rotating beam. However, one felt that a little more care could have been paid to the focussing, so as to get the image concurrent. After ½ an hour of Pet Shop Boys music, ERASURE finally came on stage. Andy sported a red corset and a very high-cut jacket, with black tights covered by white, frilly knickerbockers, covered by black bathing trunks! Vince was more conventional, wearing a 60's style Teddy-boys outfit, complete with long bluecoat etc.

They ran through 5 songs that were new to me, averaging 3-4 minutes each, before they did some of their more well known numbers, starting with "It doesn't have to be". "Ship of Fools" was signalled by the removal of the corset, the jacket having been shed earlier on, to considerable cheering from the (mainly male) crowd. The sight of Andy's appendicitis scar proved an even bigger reason for a scream, as did "The Circus" (and it wasn't only the queens who did the screaming!). However, it was applause which greeted Andy's donning of a skirt. "Who needs love like this?" and "O I'Amour" provided the dancing queens with ample opportunity to do their thing (me included).

They left the stage after "Victim of Love", exactly an hour after they had come on. Amidst much cheering, they came back for their encore a minute later, Andy now sporting an outrageous multicolour jacket, very frilly and somewhat like what one would see a flamenco dancer wear. They did another two numbers, including "Sometimes", before leaving the stage for the last time.

Overall the concert was enjoyable, even though I and many others found the 3 minutes per song just a bit boring and unimaginative. Andy's southern drawl between songs didn't do much to relieve the tedium and the lighting designer could have been a bit more imaginative in what s/he did. However, the music itself, and Andy's costume made up for these shortcomings, so that all was soon forgiven.

Tony Murphy

Blondie Bomshell is on vacation.