Stone Roses Experience at The Spirit Store, Dundalk
Review: David Dooley
Photos: Sean Smyth
Dundalk’s Spirit Store was marred with occasion for tonight’s Stone Roses Experience gig. Not only was the gig sold out weeks in advance (complete with signs stating such & not ask about tickets), it was also the last time the quartet would play the venue after ten very successful years paying tribute to the Manchester band.
The pier based venue was a hub of activity with enough people outside the venue taking in the late July lack of rain whilst they cursed themselves for not getting tickets. Luckily the Store were quite accommodating to the demand and set up a live video feed projecting the gig onto a the side of a van on the pier.
Before the gig I’d been told numerous times how crazy these guys Dundalk shows can get; with that preconception only being reinforced with a large portion of the seated venue being cleared for gig
Opening with the lingering ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ we’re eased into tonight’s performance with front-man Alan Marshal slipping straight into a very admirable Ian Brown style trademark swagger flaunting around the stage. Eager to keep the hits coming from the get go we’re now treated to the shuffling ‘Fools Gold’, complete with additional bongos.
The reverb tinged ‘This Is The One’ soon follows and with it’s great breakaway bridge comes the first great singalong of the evening complete with a large portion of the crowd now standing on chairs, relaying the four word chant with open arms and a lot of admiration.
After a short, well needed intermission as a break from the gig’s intense heat and we’re up & running once more with ‘She Bangs the Drums’.
The biggest reaction of the night comes from none other than ‘Waterfall’. The band seem not eager to let this hit go and let the song carry carry out longer than the track listing which goes down perfectly well with the Louth crowd.
The biggest reaction of the night comes from none other than top thirty hit, ‘Waterfall’. The band do a great job of judging the crowd reaction to the songs and extend it far beyond it’s three minute standard run time; a decision that goes down very well with this Louth crowd. The surprise of the night comes not from the flawless live representation of the Stone Roses greatest hits but from the out of nowhere cover of The Jackson 5’s ‘ABC’, complete with guest vocalist plucked straight form the adoring crowd. I don’t think anybody is quite sure how this came about but it was certainly a spanner in the works that nobody seemed to mind.
Bringing tonight to a close is ‘Made of Stone’ complete with a blistering solo from Craig France. Before the final song we get a very sincere speech from Marshal about how emotional the entire event has been. You can only imagine after a decade of recreating the Manchester quartet. Last song ‘I Am The Resurrection’ comes with the inevitable stage invasion and all the hazards that arise with such. Luckily it’s nothing too disastrous, a few bars of guitar being cut out; not a bad result given the twenty plus people on stage for the finale. The song winds down into a slinky extended jam with a cheeky reference to the Batman theme song thrown in for good measure. All in all a very fitting performance on the farewell tour of a great tribute act.