Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Concert Review: Hope Sandoval at Vicar Street in Dublin


For once, this was a gig I wasn't particularly looking forward to. It took place on Halloween night, which meant braving Dublin city centre on a Saturday night, not something I'm fond of.

The gig was relatively full, which surprised me a little. The support band were exactly what you would expect sound-wise, very mellow and country tinged, though not bad. They were called Dirt Blue Jeans, though somebody said later they looked more like refugees from Almost Famous!

In fact, the support band was made up of members of Hope's band, the Warm Inventions (who played the first song with Halloween masks!). The gig failed to spark really. Hope Sandoval looked the part but she refused to engage with the audience and spent much of the gig not even looking at the audience. The music was very same-y, mellow, drifting along quite pleasantly. However the set was dominated by her new album (Through the Devil Softly), which doesn't grab me very much, with very few standout tracks at all.

She spent most of her time studiously ignoring the audience while intermittently bashing away at a xylophone (quite good actually) but the whole thing left me cold. Though I must admit, I was in the minority. I had hoped that seeing her live might pull me into the album, but it hasn't happened.

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