Review: Joey Kavangh
Photos: Abraham Tarrush
For many, 2010 is a year that they will remember for freak weather conditions, economic hardship and the havoc wreaked by Eyjafjallajokull. For young Blackrock sisters Ellie and Louise MacNamara, 2010 will likely be a year they, ahem, remember when their career took a quantum leap.
Although their 2008 debut album, ‘Here, Not There’, made the twins darlings of the Irish music scene, there had been a consensus among their supporters that the record had not reached as wide an audience as it deserved. Almost exactly two years after its release, the girls got the ‘break’ they needed to introduce their homegrown harmonies to the masses, thanks to a Discover Ireland advertisement that featured their track ‘Remember When’.
Since then, the pair have found themselves juggling headline gigs with their respective academic obligations, playing largely the same set as they have been for the past two years, save for the odd shrewdly chosen cover or two.
Tonight, however, the audience at Whelans have been promised some brand new material as the girls, who have traditionally played with just Louise’s well-strung guitar as accompaniment, are joined on stage by three additional musicians.
For starters though, it’s just the two girls and the guitar. Opening with ‘Fire Ants’ and a part Irish, part English rendition of ‘Margie’, Ellie and Louise deliver their trademark full-throttle harmonies, much to the delight of the audience (who have wisely opted to be here instead of sitting at home watching the X Factor final).
For ‘Reading in the Dark’, the girls are accompanied by a cellist and bodhran-player, and for live favourite ‘Waiter’ an electric guitarist and drums are added into the mix. It’s evident that a lot of consideration has been given to the new song arrangements, and the result is a fuller sound that still allows the girls’ vocals to take centre-stage.
A new song, ‘Find A Way’, goes down a treat and, after some slight technical difficulties, a second unnamed new track receives a similarly emphatic reception. Any concerns that Heathers would have to shoehorn other instruments into their songs and dilute the sound that has brought them success are unfounded. Combining the sisters’ abstract lyrics and distinctive delivery with more complex musical arrangements, the new material feels like a natural way for the sisters to achieve a richer sound for their forthcoming follow-up to ‘Here, Not There’ .
Covers of Beyonce’s ‘Halo’, the suitably festive ‘Carol of the Bells’ and Modest Mouse’s ‘Float On’ are mixed with other familiar favourites and a third new song is debuted before the girls wrap up their set with the track that made them this year’s second most successful singing siblings (the first being Jedward, obviously).
Moments later, the sisters return to the stage for an encore but hopes for any more new material are dashed when they opt for a rousing rendition of The Mountain Goats’ ‘Heretic Pride’. In any case, we’ve already heard enough to suggest that, as fruitful as 2010 might have been for Heathers, we ain’t seen nothing yet.
