Christy Moore review: Superb set at Vicar Street proves he's no ordinary man
Christy Moore at Vicar Street in Dublin.
★★★★☆
Truth be told, I only saw Christy Moore live once before, supporting U2 in Croke Park back in 1987. I’ve no excuse as there’s much to admire about the man and his music so I went along Saturday night out of curiosity as much as anything else. Could this giant of Irish music since the glorious days of Planxty and Moving Hearts be as great live as everybody claims? Yes, indeed he could.
Right from the off, greeted with a hero’s welcome (“What a buzz!”), he peppered his set with sure-fire winners like ‘The City Of Chicago’, a rousing ‘Viva la Quinta Brigada’ (the lyric about trying to “stem the rising fascist tide” being as relevant now as it ever was), a robustly delicate ‘Nancy Spain’, and, of course, ‘Ride On’ and ‘Ordinary Man’. Old reliables they might be but if Captain Ahab had been this adept at shooting fish, Moby Dick would have been a very short story.
Those great songs were matched, if not surpassed, when Moore turned to younger songwriters like A Lazarus Soul’s Brian Brannigan and Declan O’Rourke. A superb pin-drop a cappella reading of ‘Black & Amber’, one of two Brannigan songs on new album A Terrible Beauty, and O’Rourke’s joyous ‘Lightning Bird Wind River Man’ prove his ear is still admirably close to the ground.
That being said, Moore is a performer of such skill and power, holding his audience in rapt attention as he sings of slain journalist Lyra McKee or the Palestinian people, before making them roar along to the proto-rap of ‘Lisdoonvarna’, then leaving them misty-eyed with Richard Thompson’s achingly romantic ‘Beeswing’, he’d probably earn a standing ovation for knocking out a cover of Sabrina Carpenter.
He could do it too because he’s magnetic as the Earth’s core, has a voice as hardy as a cliff face, and caresses his guitars like a lover before attacking them like a bodhran with strings. He’s also very funny, whether eulogising the Irish Women’s Soccer team (“Unless you’re from Armagh, GAA is totally unwatchable”), a jolly-up in Amsterdam (with some boisterous crowd participation during which he displayed saintly patience), or Joxer’s adventures in Stuttgart.
The ecstatic crowd treated Christy (just remove the ‘y’) like the second coming and he responded in kind with a remarkable performance. I won’t be leaving it as long again.
