AAAAAAADeer Tick in Whelan’s, 16th of January 2014

Deer Tick’s main man John McCauley has had plenty of time to acclimatise in Dublin before tonight’s gig in Whelan’s, having spent the last week here honeymooning with his new missus, singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton. As the old Irish proverb goes, ‘a marriage isn’t consummated unless its consummated in front of a baying crowd’, so when the pair duet Johnny and June style midway through the gig, facing into one another as Ian O’Neil solos beside them on In Our Time, we can all rest easy that proper order has been observed.

Before the Rhode Island quintet take the stage on this miserable night, London power trio Great Cynics get things going with some choppy folk/punk with a grungey overtone. The guitarist and bassist share vocal duties through the set, with her growl a somewhat more interesting addition to their Billy Bragg/Joe Strummer-inflected songs. It doesn’t exactly set the room alight, but as Giles Bidder bops around the stage while his cohorts in the rhythm section smile through the set, the enthusiastic blast of grimy power pop manages to pull a few bodies in from the cold.

We made it” says McCauley as Deer Tick take their positions, and he sits at the low organ for the first of a selection from their latest album, ‘Negativity’. O’Neil beside him suddenly becomes animated as the song kicks in, jumping around as they follow with a Jayhawks-style The Dreams In The Ditch. This momentum stalls slightly with Just Friends, a cheese-fest of 80s US-sitcom opening credits magnitude. The thunderous fills of Dennis Ryan behind the kit on Baltimore Blues No.1 soon dispel any malaise, though, and from this point on it’s a raucous rock’n’roll show.

Rowdiness sets in on and off the stage for a cover of Buddy Holly’s Oh Boy!, seeming to dissolve into an improv link that connects it to their own rockin’, rollin’ Let’s All Go To The Bar. The Curtain falls, bringing the ghost of Wilson Pickett with it; McCauley hops up on Ryan’s bass drum and O’Neil barely registers that their guitars clip off one another as his colleague returns to solid ground. Cropped, Chuck Berry-style guitar work continues as Miss K careers into 12 Bar Blues and its “I like the rhythm of the 12-bar blues” refrain. That much is certainly evident – Deer Tick are here to party, and all other tunes merely seem to serve as in interference to the rock’n’roll revue that eventually speeds into a blitz at the set’s end.

McCauley returns alone for the encore and an “old American folk song” – Cocaine Blues – covered by many before him, from Townes Van Zandt to UK Subs, and the crowd whoop and whistle in return. The whine of his electric guitar coats the gravel in his throat through Christ Jesus, and as the band return for Ashamed the soft murmur of crowd singing accompanies them – “Let’s do it bigger, better and louder next time” McCauley encourages, and they go for it with aplomb. A pre-arranged Twitter request sees us out, and Mange builds to a discordant end with Rob Crowell’s keys tinkling away until it erupts into one last full-on rocker. Rock, country, folk, blues – whatever category your local music shop or favoured online retailer has seen fit to attach to Deer Tick, pay it no heed…based on this show, these guys are good ol’-fashioned rock’n’rollers.