Cast of Cheers, Adebisi Shank and Villagers were the big winners at the first annual Digital Socket Awards in The Grand Social last night, with each act picking up several awards. Other winners included Solar Bears (Best Hip Hop) Cathy Davey (Best Pop) And So I Watch You From Afar, (Best EP) Performances on the night came from Groom, Meljoann and Ham Sandwich. Perhaps, controversially, none of the performing acts won an award on the night.
The biggest talking point however was the comedy stylings of MC Garreth Stack. His brand of comedy offended many nominees, and with good reason, mostly because his curt witticisms were so close-to-the-bone that undoubtedly many of them where infact true. His attempt to do a ‘Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes’ worked perfectly as he too was lucky to leave alive. Ham Sandwich, who received most of the Stack’s diatribes, to their credit took it on the chin with a smile, in public at least.
Nay McArdle from Harmless Noise kicked of the night by introducing Groom, a groovy genre splitting seven piece band. Their music is lively and multifaceted with continuous mood swings. They are influenced by Elvis Costello, Blur, Neil Young and Ben Folds Five with a dose of Morricone on the side. Their songs are more like movements from a classic piece than singularities. As they bleed together, the last note from one song, being the first note from the next. The Hispanic rockabilly of “Doorways” and the clippity-clop percussion of single “Golden Age” the undoubted highlights of their set. A heavily out of key vocal, on an otherwise excellent cover of Wings “Jet” however, was an unfortunate moment of mediocrity for Groom.
The first award of the night was Best EP received by And So I watch You From Afar. Next up Aoife from Sweet Oblivion presented a rather drunk Cast of Cheers with Best Indie act. While Nialler9 presented Best Design to Adebisi Shank. Stephen from 4fortyfour delivered the best introduction to an award of the evening, before presenting Best Newcomer to Cast of Cheers. Mike from Drop D presented Adebisi Shank with Best Rock, their second award of the night.
Meljoann then did her electronica thing followed by some more awards. Chris from AU Magazine presented Best Video to The Ambiance Affair. Carl from Those Geese Were Stupefied presented Best Pop to Cathy Davey, much to the pleasure of the onlooking Neil Hannon. Nay from Harmless Noise returned to the stage to present Best Photographer to Loreanna Rushe. Villagers won their first award of the night for Best Folk. Goldenplec’s Vanessa Monaghan presented a chuffed Donal Dineen with Best Radio for the Small Hours. Solar Bears received the award for Best Hip Hop before RTE presented Cast of Cheers with the Outstanding Award 2010.
Unsurprisingly Garreth Stack was otherwise engaged when Ham Sandwich took to the stage, for a mostly emphatic point-proving performance. Niamh looked extremely sexy in a figure-hugging white dress with black polka dots. She controlled the stage, her voice a cross between Deborah Harry and Sonya Aurora Madan. Ham Sandwich are at there best when they unleash the unison vocals of Podge and Niamh and the songs are driven by dirty distorted guitars. And at their worst with the limp politeness of “The Naturist”. New Single “Ants” and “The Fog” were amongst the highlights of their set. Of course it wouldn’t be a Ham Sandwich gig without a comedy moment delivered by Podge. This came when he called on the crowd to “unleash” their “inner gorilla”.
The night concluded with the final 3 awards. Unsurprisingly, due to the number of nominations their acts received for tonight’s awards, Richter Collective won Best Label. Their marquee act Adebisi Shank won Best Album, and last but not least Villagers won Best Song for “The Meaning of the Ritual”.