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.