Just before Christmas, W&H rolled up as early as possible at De Barra’s for legendary ex-Hüsker Dü man Grant Hart’s show. He didn’t let us down either, turning in a sublime hour-long set balanced adroitly between old and new which sent us home suitably stoked for the festive season.
What we hadn’t expected, though, was that Hart would be given a run for his money by a support band we had little or no knowledge of at the time. Before they plugged in, Cork quartet THE SHAKER HYMN meant little to us, save for the fact their lead guitarist Robbie Barron also features in the highly-promising John Blek & The Rats. After the next hook-stuffed half-hour, however, they left us in no doubt they were going to be among the ones to watch during 2013.
Returning to De Barra’s a mere month later as headliners, The Shaker Hymn again left us gaping in admiration and crossing our fingers for singles and a debut album sooner rather than later, for they have the kind of quality-heavy songs – and lots of ‘em – that most bands would quite happily sacrifice significant family members for.
Given a full hour to stretch, The Shaker Hymn show us exactly what they’re made of. Despite the name and occasional flecks of Crazy Horse-style Americana, it’s not so much roots/ Southern Gothic that’s the name of the game here, but viciously melodic rock’n’roll, thrillingly covering all bases from the garage-style cut’ n’ thrust of the sublime opener ‘The Hunter & The Headman’ through to deceptively hard-edged, Byrds-y power pop of ‘You Taste Like Nothing’ and the refined, Alex Chilton-esque balladry of ‘Caroline’.
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The band are a fine unit too. Rhythm section Shane Murphy and Donal Linehan lock with intuition and verve; Caoilian Sherlock is a nonchalantly charismatic frontman and the Les Paul-wielding Robbie Barron is a lead guitarist of distinction, capable of elegance and exhilaration in the space of one short solo. These qualities are all to the fore as they pull out all the stops for a memorable finale involving a dramatic ‘Lead Me Away’, an epically-inclined ‘Hang You From Your Heart’ and a wigged-out encore of The Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ played with the kind of hypnotic energy Ride brought to their mind-bending version of ‘Eight Miles High.’
The Shaker Hymn, then, play electrifying songs of praise that can’t fail to appeal to the broadest of churches. Get ready to worship, all you discerning music heads out there.
The Shaker Hymn Facebook page
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