Review by Tadgh O’Connor
Photo’s by Kieran Frost
The Cast of Cheers have slowly risen into our sights over the past year in a whirlwind of buzz since releasing their first album, “Chariot”, for free last February. Boasting a powerful sound combining the strained vocals and powerful bass with the guitar dexterity of math rock, The Cast of Cheers have become a favorite in many circles. Enemies are continuing, what is becoming a tradition of, Irish instrumental rock. Their debut album “We’ve Been Talking” is full technical guitar and snappy drums, and they’re slowly paving themselves a future in the same light as bands like Redneck Manifesto. Full of critical acclaim and a grassroots following.
Enemies started off on a strong foot, moving the crowd with their off-beat loops and layered tapping. As they progressed through their set though they seemed to lack the charisma to take their album and make it work live. Don’t get me wrong, they’re a great band with great songs, but they need to step up their game to push themselves and make them a great band. Guitarist Eoin switches between drums and guitar mid-song creating some interesting dynamics. All together they played a solid set, but they were about to be greatly overshadowed.
As the Cast of Cheers took to the stage I threw a look around at the room, and saw the room packed to the walls upstairs and down. The band got ready with a slight chat with the crowd, promising us new songs. They followed up on this promise straight off breaking into a new song. It really speaks well for the band that they have such quality of songs coming just months after their new album.
The band are extremely energetic on stage. Singer Conor literally sweating onto the crowd, guitarist Neil flung himself about stage losing is shoes and ripping apart guitar leads. Bassist John just kind of stands there, smirking every time the other two slip up. The Cast of Cheers really did surprise me live, a lot of what sounded like studio effects on the album were perfectly recreated live. Usually when bands play new tracks live I set myself up for a disappointment but the new songs rivaled their previous stuff.
All together they put a beautifully chaotic live show, doing great justice to their album and providing a light hearted attack at live music. I can’t wait to hear more of this band and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a place in Oxegen or Electric Picnic’s line up next year.
