The Original Rudeboys at The Grand Social, Dublin on March 31st 2012

Review: Niall Swan

One of the biggest success stories of  2012 so far,The Original Rudeboys, celebrated the release of their début album This Life at a packed out Grand Social on Saturday night, and a celebration it most certainly was. With the news that their first foray into the music scene had resulted in a number one album on iTunes as well as a top three chart position in the Official Album Charts, Rob Burch, Neddy Arkins and Sean Walsh were in the mood to party. The Grand Social, in the heart of Dublin, was a fitting venue for this inner-city threesome who have shot to fame in recent months with their unusual, yet intriguing blend of acoustic guitar & hip hop.

First support act on the night was Justin Casey, a young singer-songwriter from Dublin. Unfortunately, this reviewer missed his DART and as a result only managed to catch the last song of Justin’s set, a cover of Ed Sheeran’s A-Team with a twist as he borrowed a verse from The Original Rudeboys’ Live Your Life. This seemed to go down very well, as Casey posed for photos with several members of the audience in the immediate aftermath of his performance.

With the room at an ambient Grand Social slowly beginning to fill up, Róisín O took to the stage accompanied by her four piece band. Opening her set with Find My Way, she quickly found her feet and delivered a powerful vocal performance packed with style and panache. Other notable songs from the set included a cover of Florence & The Machine’s Dog Days which had the audience hooked and future single Here We Go, which is set to be released in May. With an album in the pipeline, Róisín O is certainly someone to keep an eye on in 2012.

By now the venue was packed out with a crowd that confirmed the general consensus that The Original Rudeboys fan base is made up of predominantly people in their late teens. A short movie about the band’s journey was played on a big screen which was met with loud cheers that soon descended into a hushed silence, filled with expectation. The silence was soon punctured by a crashing of drums as the three “inner-city lads” bound on to the stage. As a fan of the band and having never seen them perform live before I wasn’t too sure what to expect. If I was to say that I wasn’t disappointed, I’d be lying. The addition of an electric guitar and drums to one of my personal favourites, Sunny Days, seemed to detract from what had made The Original Rudeboys so easy to listen to in the first place.  However, that was an opinion which was most certainly not shared by the masses as they danced, jumped and clapped along to a set which included every song from their album, This Life.

The set began slowly with Bringing Me Down and Me And My Mind showcasing the band’s undoubted ability to pen serious, thought-provoking lyrics. The pace soon picked up though as they rolled out their first cover of the night, a thoroughly enjoyable rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. By now, my major gripe with the drum&guitar combo was becoming more of a little niggle. Ukulele player ‘Walshy’ had by this stage taken a firm grasp of the metaphorical conch and was doing most of the talking. The Gnarls Barkley cover was followed by Complicated, Feel the Same and In Too Deep, the latter of which perfectly suits the crooning vocals of Rob Burch.

It was the next song that got the biggest ‘pop’ of the night by far, but unfortunately, it was another cover. What started off as a pretty good cover of Adele’s Someone Like You, suddenly transformed into a perfectly executed rendition of Mumford & Son’s Little Lion Man. This was followed by Blue Eyes and crowd favourite Live Your Life, which sparked a mass sing along. The encore was made up of the two singles to come from This Life so far, Travelling Man and Stars in My Eyes and the young crowd filtered out onto the Dublin quays, seemingly very satisfied with what they’d seen.

While it’s clear that The Original Rudeboys have a talent for making entertaining, original and easy to listen to music, their live performances leave a lot to be desired.  Of course, it’s understandable to have to resort to playing covers when you are in the early stages of your career, but the fact that their fantastic rendition of  Mumford & Son’s Little Lion Man got the biggest reaction from the crowd, rather than one of their own songs, isn’t a good sign. Whilst I wasn’t overly impressed by the show as a whole, I don’t want to completely dismiss The Original Rudeboys as a live act, yet. With the addition of a few more of their own songs and a lot of practice with the newly added members there is definitely the potential to vastly improve their live shows. If you didn’t make it to The Grand Social on Saturday, you can catch them again in Whelan’s on June 2nd.