Having heard them compared with the likes of the FOO FIGHTERS, REM and WEEZER, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this Irish four-piece except eclecticism. What I got from the vocals and guitar of Cormac Battle, Darragh Butler’s drums, guitarist Derren Dempsey and Mick Murphy’s bass was plenty of energy, enthusiasm and potential, but also evidence of work to do in the variety department.
The audience was slightly thin on the ground and impossibly un-Glasgow like in their stubborn refusal to join in as only a Glasgow crowd can, even as the performance steadily improved during their time onstage. The openers, which included “Distortion”, and an up-tempo version of “Peroxatine” from their 2000 debut album Bastinado, along with the songs in their immediate wake, are not tunes lacking in power but smack too much of a certain familiarity (read Blink 182 or The Strokes).
Things began to look up when the title track to their soon-come album My Medicine entered into the fray: far superior to anything we’d heard thus far. The set was greatly enhanced from here on, taking in “Understand”, “Take Me Home”, “No Worries” and “Radio Disco”, all songs that made me thankful for their subtle change in tone.
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However, the overall impact had changed little. The night was crying out for a sea change in tempo and style; a bit less WEEZER and bit more ELBOW, perhaps, but it wasn’t forthcoming. Despite the band’s best efforts, still no more than four people had both hands out of their pockets and proceedings were wrapped up with fifteen minutes to go.
It must be stressed that Kilkenny’s finest are far from talentless. They’ve been through a lot to get this far, having survived their teenage debt-ridden incarnation as KERBDOG, and what frontman Battle has described as a resultant “psychotic episode” in his own life. It would be a pity if more were not to come from these guys. More variety and more support slots can only lead to headline gigs at bigger venues with crowds that can be relied upon to reflect the mood of a band with enough apparent passion and belief to keep the wagon rolling for a while yet.
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