Live music review: El Vy at Vicar Street, Dublin
Matt Berninger strolled on talking to his phone. “Say hello to the internet.” said the singer, in Dublin with his El Vy side project — a jerkier, more free-flowing riff on the poised melancholy of his other band, The National.
He continued in this vein longer than he probably should have — clambering into the front row for a selfie with uber-fans, then shushing the room so that he could bid farewell to all the devotees watching online (a process drawn out as the wifi connection stalled). The worry that El Vy was an indulgence rather than a new musical beginning for the 44-year-old seemed justified. Was Berninger here to perform or lark about? You wondered if he was still in the process of making his mind up.
Sensing the discomfort of the heaving crowd (the gig was upgraded after original venue Whelan’s sold out in 30 seconds) he smartly shifted tack, putting the phone away and ceding the floor to El Vy guitarist Brent Knopf, an indie veteran whose caffeinated guitar style feels light years removed from The National’s stately orchestral pop.
Over 70 minutes or so, Berninger, Knopf and their four-piece band recreated track-by-track Return To The Moon, El Vy’s recent debut album. Live, the collaborators doubled down on the record’s raw-nerve intensity — the impact heightened by glimmering white lights and frosty-coated synths. Shaking his head and clamping his eyes shut, Berninger was a curious frontman — at once cathartic and laid-back.
However, the group’s best songs transcended his schtick — in particular the title track, and a cover of the Fine Young Cannibals’ ‘She Drives Me Crazy’, which married swinging grooves with the singer’s crepuscular croon. It shouldn’t have worked, yet it did. With The National already writing for their next record, fans will hope Berninger brings some of El Vy’s strung-out spontaneity back to the day job.
