Live music review: Hozier/Ellie Goulding

Spirit Store, Dundalk

There was a palpable giddiness in the sea air around Dundalk’s Spirit Store last Saturday night as rumours spread for that night’s Guinness Amplify gig.

Before any of the ‘surprise’ acts took to the stage, we were treated to a five-song set from Dubliner, Garr Cleary. When the Raheny native opened with some quiet finger picking you feared for him. But then came the voice, a mix of Ray LaMontagne and Fleet Foxes lead man Robin Pecknold. The chattering stopped. By the end of his first number, ‘The Fisherman’, Cleary had the crowd oo-ooing along with him. One to watch.

Fifteen minutes later, and sure enough, on came Hozier (inset). Tonight it became apparent that ‘he’ — Hozier — is very much a ‘they’. As a band they are superb and they execute their harmonies so beautifully that you can only imagine how long they spend getting them right.

Undoubtedly, main man Andrew Byrne stands out. He’s tall and somewhat gangly but his eyes ooze charisma. More is the pity that he doesn’t use it just a little more. On ‘To Be Alone’, a soulful blues number straight out of a steaming hot Alabama church, Byrne was flicking some dazzling riffs that Jimi Hendrix himself would have been proud of. They were begging to be cut lose and ripped into; alas the script was kept to and they went back in their box. Some numbers like ‘Someone New’ are simply too light and really Hozier is at his ominous best on tracks like ‘From Eden’, ‘Sedated’ and the miraculous ‘Take me to Church’ which was greeted with biblical fanaticism.

The Wicklow man could learn a thing or two from Ellie Goulding who, admittedly, came on stage with a display of lightning strikes and wind but left you in no doubt as to what she was all about: power, raunch and sex. Her band, which included a phenomenally powerful drummer and an equally impressive bass player, didn’t let up once during a whirlwind set. However, whereas Hozier had something to say, Goulding just had something to shout about.

Guinness Amplify continues its tour through the provinces until mid-October, taking place in Munster on Oct 2-5