Review & Photography by Paul Verner for MPM
A midweek sold out show at Belfast’s iconic Limelight complex for the final night of Dea Matrona’s 16 date tour, was enough to make a reviewer want to pic up the camera and head out of the house to catch the critically acclaimed duo in their hometown.
First up though, Madams Last Discovery took to the stage, all suited and booted and treated the growing crowd to a lively, but short set of melodic rock n roll originals.
Set staples included the energetic ‘Champagne Socialist’, the slower groove of ‘Dixie’ and slide laden closer ‘Ayva’, which were more than enough to get the room warmed up ready for the headline act.
After a short turnaround Dea Matrona took to Limelight 2’s stage to the sound of The Knack’s ‘My Sharona’. As the band picked up their instruments and started to sing, it quickly became apparent that the sound guy had fucked up, one mic didn’t seem to be turned on and the other hadn’t even been plugged in.
As now touring professionals, Orlaith and Mollie got on with the show and shared a mic while the sound team attempted to sort out the issues.
Thankfully, by the end of the intro song the issues seemed to be fixed and they were able to kick on into ‘Stamp On It’ from their recently released debut album ‘For Your Sins’.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of the set was made up of songs from the new album. That didn’t seem to be a problem for the packed audience who already knew the lyrics and sang along to every song. In fact for a relatively young band they already seem to have a loyal following on the local Belfast scene, their fans were of all age ranges and there was plenty of merch on show in the line outside before the show even started.
The set continued with ‘Get My Mind Off’ and album opener ‘Stuck On You’, the musical style and vocal harmonies bring a fresh take to some serious 70s musical influences. Those weren’t the only influences, as the set was cleverly interspersed with rocked up covers of Prince’s ‘KISS’ (featuring plenty of cowbell), Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ and Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 hit ‘Oh Well’.
By this stage the duo had settled in, seamlessly sharing lead vocal duties and enjoying the feedback from the audience, on occasion telling stories between songs and even getting rapturous applause while donning glittered up cowboy hats for the country inspired ‘Dead Man’s Heart’.
Other highlights form the evening included blues influenced ‘Black Rain’ and the anthemic ‘Red Button’ which closed out the main set. After a short break and obligatory chants of ‘one more tune’ from the crowd, the band returned to the stage and the evening ended with riff heavy rocker ‘Make You My Star’ followed by well deserved cheers of appreciation and a rapturous applause.
Next up for Dea Matrona is Sound of the Shore Festival outside Magherafelt, Northern Ireland ,June 1st, and then they are off to play the Supersonic in Paris, France on Jun 27th. If feel good rock n roll, with catchy hooks and clever lyrics is your thing, go check them out.
Set List
- Intro My Sharona (cover)
- Stamp On It
- Get My Mind Off
- Stuck On You
- Did Nobody Ever Love You?
- KISS (cover)
- Wilderness
- Nobody’s Child
- So Damn Dangerous
- Oh Well
- Black Rain
- Glory, glory ( I Am Free)
- Dead Man’s Heart
- Every Night I Want You
- Murder On The Dancefloor (cover)
- Red Button
- Make You My Star (Encore)
Debut album ‘For Your Sins’ coming May 3rd
Pre-Order Now: https://linktr.ee/deamatronaband
