James Vincent McMorrow, live at the Olympia

James Vincent McMorrow live at the Olympia

Last Friday I got the chance to attend the first of two nights James Vincent McMorrow was playing in the Olympia, Dublin. I was really looking forward to this gig as it was my first chance to see him perform a full set after only catching snippets of sets before.

support act - The Staves

Before he came on, we were treated to his support act, a folk group called The Staves. The group consisted of 3 sisters who performed with just a guitar and mandolin. They are a lovely little group who, thanks to being sisters, have really lovely natural vocal harmonies. I definitely enjoyed their half hour set which felt like it passed in an instant – which is always a good sign of how much I enjoy a performance.

On the stroke of 9pm, the man himself walked onstage and started his set. Solo for a song or two and then with the band for the rest of the night. The man was in top form, you could nearly say he was giddy from the realisation that he was actually playing two nights at the Olympia, he even admitted his performances were usually a little more on the suave side but not tonight. But I think we will let him away given the special occasion that it was. There was also a nice bit of banter with the crowd throughout the night with him telling us little stories and anecdotes.

James & the band

His set consisted of songs from his only album (his words), mainly If I Had A Boat, Sparrow & The Wolf, This old Dark Machine, And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop & Follow You Down To the Red Oak Tree. Along with this he also performed two cover versions; Steve Winwood’s Higher Love & Chris Isaak’s Wicked Games which sounded better than the originals.

I have to say the man is totally amazing live and he is the only act I have seen in the Olympia or anywhere else actually where you can hear a pin dropping during his performance. I don’t know what it is but he seems to cast a spell on a crowd whenever he starts to sing. I have seen him do it before at this year’s Choice Music Prize night when he managed to silence everyone in Vicar Street during his set, even the very noisy music industry types who were hanging out up in the balcony area. Absolutely spellbinding

James & the band in full flow

However, there was a minus to the night and that was distractions. One from Mr McMorrow himself; like I said above he was great with the banter throughout the night but there was splattered throughout the set deep silences while he and his band re-tuned their instruments for the next song and the silence could sometimes felt awkward while the audience sat & watched them. James even acknowledged said silences and admitted he should have someone to do the re-tuning for him but he liked to keep it real by doing it himself. I really think he should reconsider this as by the end of the night I found the silences agitating. The other distraction came from the audience members that were sitting in my section. It appeared that they all had weak bladders judging by the constant jumping up from seats & running to the toilets between each song. It got very annoying and got in the way of what was going on stage at times.

But these are just personal niggles and in no way takes away from the overall brilliance that emanated from the stage. The whole night was fantastic and cannot wait to see the man in action again.