Our latest trip to The Diamond Rock Club was to see a gig with Cormac Neeson, frontman of Belfast rockers The Answer. It would be an evening of music a little different to what we are normally used to at The Diamond, as Cormac’s solo material is not only nothing like you would be used to hearing from his band The Answer, but also, probably wouldn’t even be considered as rock.
In saying that, it certainly doesn’t take away from the fact that what Cormac has put out is a beautifully well crafted album that at times is uplifting, but at the same time makes room to tug at ones heartstrings.
“White Feather”, the name of Cormac’s solo release got to see success in the UK Official Country Rock chart, reaching number 4.
Unfortunately tonight would see a late start to the show, as support for tonight’s show Colm McIntyre, for reasons unknown to me, was unable to make it.
Things got underway at around 10:30 when Cormac took to the stage backed by The Unholy Gospel band, who you can see perform together each Sunday afternoon in Belfast’s Fibber Magees.
Cormac and the band played songs from Cormac’s “White Feather” album as well as a few of The Unholy Gospel band standards which included “John The Revelator”. Cormac also gave a shoutout to his band mates from The Answer and performed one of their songs “Preach”, which is a song that always goes down well.
The set ended though, after around an hour and twenty minutes. I personally was a little disappointed that they didn’t play for longer. Maybe even throwing in a few more of the songs they would normally play together on a Sunday afternoon at Fibers. In saying that, what they did play, they did flawlessly. Cormac was in perfect tune as he always is and to be honest I have yet to see a bad performance from him, as I have never heard him be anything but in fine voice.
I would like to give a special shoutout to whoever was in charge of the sound at the show as they did a tremendous job. The mix of the band and Cormac’s vocals were probably the best I have heard from them yet.
Despite the lack of a support act and the set finishing a bit shorter than I expected I would still have to say that this was nothing short of a good solid show with everyone involved putting in a top notch performance.
Review & Photography by David Stewart for MPM
