We Cut Corners at The Button Factory | Review

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We Cut Corners at The Button Factory Friday 09^th May 2014

During the early stages of the We Cut Corners gig at The Button Factory, drummer and singer Conall Ó Breacháin declared that it was good to see old friends in relation to playing songs from their first album. This could also be applied to the gig going public getting to see We Cut Corners finally returning to the live circuit. It’s been three years since their debut album ‘Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards’ was unleashed and their new album ‘Think Nothing’ has recently released to glowing reviews.

The lack of songs used to be a criticism that could be levelled at We Cut Corners as their debut album left them with only twenty-seven minutes of material, but the band now have substantial quantity of material to fill out their set. The new songs are given an early airing and surprisingly it’s one of the more pastoral efforts Wallflower that opened the gig rather than one of the more up-tempo tunes. The switching between styles is something that occurred throughout the gig and this pacing kept proceedings from getting one dimensional. We Cut Corners are accomplished enough to pull off both styles with ease. On the quieter slow numbers, Ó Breacháin stands up front, sometimes with acoustic guitar, cutting a composed and assured figure. He’s adept at displaying a controlled flurry of energy or fragility depending on what type of song We Cut Corners are playing.

We Cut Corners are no slouches to rocking out and their two-piece set up of drum and electric guitar have a more varied approach than what their contemporaries produce. In quick fire succession they bustle their way through Overtures, Mammals and Toll Free. Best Friend’s change of lead vocals to John Duignan shows the band’s versatility. Dumb Blonde, Yet and old favourite A Pirate’s Life remind us how engaging an act they are when they strip it back to basics. Following this they change tack again with the visceral rush of The Leopard, This Is Then and an especially rapturous version of last year’s single YKK bringing the set to a wholly satisfying conclusion.

Armed with all these songs, surely We Cut Corners couldn’t deny the crowd an encore? They don’t disappoint with a stripped back version of Maybe In The Future (where Ó Breacháin asks the crowd to imagine the string section that’s missing from this live performance), latest single Blue and the still brilliant Go Easy. Despite a seventeen strong set, it all seemed to zip by so quickly, something which John Duignan acknowledged as it being “the fastest gig of our lives”. Time does indeed whoosh by when you’re enjoying a performance as sublime as We Cut Corner’s at The Button Factory.