Foy Vance at The Sugar Club | Review

Foy Vance at the Sugar Club, Dublin on Thursday 7th of March 2013

When Foy Vance arrives on the Sugar Club stage just after 9.20 on a Thursday evening, things aren’t looking too promising. Support bands Foreign Slippers and Farriers play nice sets without ever really grabbing the attention of the audience. The venue doesn’t offer too much either. The lighting is stagnant for the evening and there are only two speakers pointed backwards from the stage to the audience, leaving the sounds to meld together as they make their way to the back of the venue. Many of the crowd are gathered on the side stairs or by the bar at the back. It’s unfortunate that the layout has people standing in places so conducive to talking. Chatter, indeed, litters the evening, though Vance is never shy about pointing it out when he starts to play.

He jumps on the stage from the front accompanied by just his guitar, dressed in a blazer, very low cut shirt, hat and moustache. It’s certainly an odd look, but when the music starts it offers no further distraction. His opener displays a voice that sounds raspier than hung-over granite. As the song closes, he yells out “I am a streetcar named desire,” to demonstrate the power behind his vocals and earning him a standing ovation.

He is joined by band of six for Icarus & Occident and shows that he’s definitely capable of higher and softer tones as the band offer choral overtones in backing vocals. His heartfelt songs resonate well through the venue. New song Janey is a radio-friendly number, which sounds like Mumford and Sons if they put any emotion into their songs.

Before his next he brings up the topic of his blazer and cracks into a little bit of Macklemore’s Thrift Shop before launching into Hard as Stone. He bridges genres of folk and blues and even borders country and western occasionally, while demonstrating humour and charm in between songs. Connection is played with the help of his young daughter Ella who, apparently, wrote the song. Something rings a little hollow in the song, though the charm in having a second generation of Vance on the stage overcomes any complaints.

Be the Song is played fantastically. Vance displays his mercurial musicality as he brings a bow across his guitar to beautiful effect. It’s further evidenced by the follow up. His band departs and Vance, accompanied only by his guitar and a repeater plays a thoroughly rocking song in the vein of something from Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’. A quick duo of the quiet Homebird and a fantastic version of Indiscriminate Acts of Kindness have the audience rapt.

The band returns to the stage as Vance and Co. venture into the realm of gospel before the audience is lead down an engrossing call and response road that sees the show out. Emotional and powerful during the songs, funny and charming in between, Vance put on a fantastic show that transported the audience far away from the limited venue in which they were situated. If this is anything to go by his forthcoming album, his first in six years, should be soon on your shopping list.