Review by Alan Steenson for MPM
Saturday night, it’s cold raining and what shall I do? I know I shall warm myself up standing amongst the sold out crowd waiting to see the Undertones and the SawDoctors.
Thankfully the rain stopped in time for a good sized crowd to settle down to the first of two strong Irish acts.
The Undertones; I must confess; are a band who I have always enjoyed on record many many moons ago but to be fair I never felt the need to go to a gig, mainly as I am not a huge fan of seeing bands who have replaced their front man. In the case of the Undertones the front man had such a distinctive voice that I thought it would just end up sounding like a poor cover band.
Anyway with my jaded view I settled down to listen to a set which started off with “Girls Don’t Like It” and straight away it was obvious that The Undertones stuck a huge middle finger up to my opinion with a frantic power punk song that delivered with a punch and like the Undertones with Sharkey it was over in a flash which was something I always liked about them.
Having songs just over two minutes and 30 seconds means you get more bang for your buck on record and live as they jumped straight into the classic “Jimmy Jimmy” and onto “Jump Boys” a song I didn’t know but sounded great and yet another fast paced song spirally to catchy spiralling chorus at the end.
“Love Parade”was the first song that I found the vocals to be very reminiscent of Sharkey’s but to me sounded crisper and by now I was sold to having a new singer. Paul McLoone, despite having the big shoes to fill, is a tremendous front man for any band and despite my ‘late to the party’ reservations I humbly apologise to the man for my earlier comments.
I missed the next song but they then played “You’ve Got My Number” & “Wednesday Week” both strong Undertones songs that I always liked and sounded better live in my opinion.
The crowd then joined in for the obligatory rendition of “Teenage Kicks” , a song that I would have though would end the nigh being their biggest hit, but glad bands have the balls to stick it in early, the biggest hits aren’t always the best songs, and whilst I like it (mainly cause it does make us all proud its known internationally) the Undertones always delivered better songs than this, and speaking of which one was up next “Here Comes the Summer” which as it turns out was the most ironic song of the evening as it started to rain a bit with McLoone saying “Honestly it is coming”…It still didn’t but what we got was “Happens All The Time” another personal favourite of mine which live had a harder edge to it and for me worked really well, after some name checks by McLoone to the crowd they launched into “I Gotta Getta” with sections of the song that pause to great effect then the guitar and drums kick in.
Family Entertainment” was a lot harder than on record and I thought the vocals got lost a bit, but I soon forgot about that when “My Perfect Cousin” blasted out and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face, ‘“Hypnotise” followed along with the band saying the set list has gone up in the air, so on with “When Saturday Comes” with its drum intro and slow paced song on record it felt quicker and better live.
With a scream and familiar rift “I Know a Girl” was played again a slow intro that sped up as the song developed well… my friend said his voice reminded him of the Dead Kennedy’s singer with the warbling that did differ from Sharkey (Ok last time I will compare them) next up was “Listening In”, one I don’t remember on record but has a rousing end that drew great response from the crowd.
With the obligatory thanks to the Saw Doctors who invited them for this support slot they said they would play a few more then needed a sausage roll (was hoping they wanted Mars Bars) So no Mars bars, but instead we got my favourite Undertones song, and one I remember thrashing along to at various evenings in Belfast in the 80’s “Get Over You” with its pounding drums through that chorus was the perfect end to a terrific set and set the crowd and I up for the main event:
The Saw Doctors.
Having watched them a very long time ago when everyone was a lot younger and a lot slimmer, I was really looking forward to hearing them since seeing them at one of the first Belfast outdoor events before Belsonic and other established gigs (I think mid 90’s). It was a band that I only heard fleetingly over the last 30 odd years so I did take that time to check out some recent sets to get a feel for some of the newer songs that I didn’t know.
Having lived in Ireland in Kildare and Mayo the Saw Doctors were never far from the airwaves for me. The band entered the stage to possibly the largest crowd at Custom House Square that I’ve seen, with it rammed from front to back and as the band entered the stage everyone was buzzing with excitement as they launched straight into “Exhilarating Sadness” with the crowd clapping and cheering straight away the atmosphere was set for the night with them even sining the notes of the guitar solo at the end, “Tommy K” a song about a Galway DJ the band know back in the day Called Tommy Kavanagh a great song and perfect for audience participation.
Then a big shock for me (probably not for the big fans) when “I Useta Lover” was next, one of those songs that you would expect on an encore, and just like the Undertones they were not afraid to blast that one out early with the crowd punctuating the verse with “then we had a session!”, so I was thinking how to top that but there was no fear as they played “Howya Julia” a great sing along for the crowd with its racy lyrics about sex and religion, with the first of quite a few sax solos from the latest member of the band Anthony Thistlewaite (formerly of ‘the Waterboys’ and also played with one of my favourite bands ‘the Mission’ back in the mid 90’s) Lights down with only the singer Davy Carton highlighted as he started up the slow numbers for what was going to be the easy listening section of the evening “To Win Just Once” an inspiring song about hope which came across very well, clear vocals and lyrics which is always nice at any gig for those songs you don’t automatically know, and a nice split second of silence into a guitar and then with what was becoming a nice habit of the sax solo.
“Wake Up Sleeping” a simple love song about lost love and “AWandering”, but this section for me had the best moment of the night for me as the stage lit up Green and Red split equally half n half as the oooooooooh the “Green and Red of Mayo” was sang out by all with pretty much everyone knowing the lyrics, and for me it was very emotional moment having lived in Mayo for a number of years this song was VERY close to my heart and it brought all those great memories I had there. The atmosphere on that song alone was worth any entrance fee to a gig …. Absolutely spine tingling moment for me and it will be a long time before any live act will do that to me again.
By the time I managed to recover from the emotional mess it left me in (in a good way) “Galway and Mayo” was next and yet another reminder of the West Coast of Ireland with lots of GAA references to Galway which whilst I know not to much about GAA it did get a mixed friendly reaction from those non Galway supporters. “Rock N Roll” was next after saying that rock n roll made it to Ireland and Belfast had its hero’s in Van the Man and the Outcasts… the song was a rockabilly number with guitar and sax playing back and forth at the end which sounded great.
Up next was “Red Cortina” from their debut album a great tune which I always liked and live with the added strong sax solo gave it a new lease of life. “Share The Darkness” played, but I was distracted by a man so drunk yet able to bang out the lyrics word perfect, clearly he loved it more than me listening to him, but at least he was a happy drunk.
Sound Sham” was introduced by the band as a song about Tuam and those from there who succeeded in life and jokingly said to everyone that the march was at the back, the song was a fast paced number, then lights down again for “Clare Island” a nice melodic song with yet another sax solo (deffo a pattern developing here) The band mentioned about having an accordion and onto “Joyce Country Ceili Band” and then onto “I’ll be on My Way” an upbeat song with almost a reggae and ska feel about it, next was “Never Mind the Strangers” still with the accordion with a sea shanty feel to it and so onto the last song of the first part of the set “N17” a road that I have been down countless times on my way to Ballina and down the west coast and lyrically tonight they had a different meaning to when I first listened from their debut album.
After a very short exit from the stage and to rapturous applause they returned for the final two songs of the evening, “That’s What She Said Last Night” great to sing along with the crowd joining in hands above the hand clapping in time to the drums and finally onto “Hay Wrap” a song for all the country folk, frantic and mental at the end with the crowd singing along to “Hay! Bale them, Bale them, Hay! Hay!” That’s all you need to know for the sing along on a sunny day… pity it wasn’t though… but ‘hay’ it didn’t and for one I am glad the rain stayed away.
Tonight for me was all about reminiscing about Mayo and I honestly didn’t think I would but these lads who are as tight a band as you will ever see live had me in tears, in a very nice way, and no band has ever driven me to tears in that manner…. So thank you Saw Doctors from a one time Mayo blow in that was bloody marvellous.
Photography by Darren Mcveigh
