Little Green Cars at Vicar Street | Review

Little Green Cars at Vicar Street, Dublin on Friday May 11th,

Each time Little Green Cars have played a gig in Dublin, it has progressively increased in profile and crowd capacity. Last March it was a headline show in The Button Factory and in the interim period Little Green Cars have been touring the USA. May 10^th marked the launch of their debut album ‘Absolute Zero’ in Ireland and over the past 6 months the singles Harper Lee and The John Wayne have been steadily increasing their exposure. Coming into this gig there was more buzz than in a beehive about Little Green Cars.

Before Little Green Cars, there were two support acts in the shape of rowdy two piece drum and guitar rawk outfit Evil Sons and the highly polished Gypsies On The Autobahn. Both impressed in their own way with Evil Sons promising they were going to ruin our evening with their punked up take on Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the assured performance and superb vocal range of Gypsies On The Autobahn front man James Smith.

The auto-tuned Red and Blue was the intro for Little Green Cars to enter. The instruments were donned, positions were taken by each band member, a deep intake of breath was taken by all and finally Harper Lee thundered out. Comparisons with Arcade Fire are too easy to just roll out; however there is no denying Little Green Cars are generating a colossal sound which is capturing the emotions of those who witness it. Angel Owls continues on the upward curve before we are treated to the first lead vocal by Faye O’Rourke on Please. Hearing her voice reverberate around Vicar St is spine tingling.

The middle third of the set with Big Red Dragon, Kitchen Floor and two songs not on ‘Absolute Zero’, Grow and Mom & Dad continue to display the superb harmonies Little Green Cars are capable of. In a gig with many high points, the stand-out My Love Took Me Down to the River to Silence Me is one of those ‘wow’ moments that will live long in the memory.

There is no disguising that The John Wayne is Little Green Cars most recognisable song and the crowd claps in unison to the drum beats as the song builds to a rousing uplifting crescendo. It’s a thrilling, stirring way to end their set. As we wait for an encore, lights are turned on and then dimmed and no one is quite sure as if the band will return.

Like characters that had changed from superheroes to mere mortals they appeared underneath the balcony for an acoustic encore. This was the band at their most bare and showed they are human just like the rest of us. Steve Appleby joked it would be strange for the uninitiated to see a scene where a band was playing and everyone with the back’s to the stage. Renditions of Goodbye Blue Monday and The Consequences of Not Sleeping were provided with Appleby explaining how the latter had endearingly gained its title much to his father’s amusement. The crowd was in awe of being serenaded in such close proximity and it was this intimacy which elevated a gig which was merely memorable to that which was truly special.