Concert Review: O Emperor – The Academy, Dublin, April 15th 2011

Unfortunately your reviewer arrived late to an almost full to bursting Academy, missing the Sacred Animals and most of Gorgeous Colours. From what I saw of the latter, they played a radio-friendly brand of pop/rock with occasional trumpet. O Emperor were accompanied by a string quartet, alongside some backing singers/percussionists. With five members in the band this made for a lot of people on stage! Despite not being the most charismatic of bunches their Frames-style rock ambled along agreeably in a laid-back, blissed out way, songs like December and Sedalia working well. As the gig wore on they appeared to become a little more precious, summoning influences like Jeff Buckley and Muse, though the ensuing tedium was lifted by single Don Quixote. The music was good in the main with some nice harmonies (Fleet Foxes-style) but something didn’t quite connect, at times the band appeared locked in their own little world, unaware of the crowd. I fear the aforementioned crowd will disagree with me though…