Mick Flannery concert review

It's official: he is wonderful


First, a digression! Some years ago, I was stunned to see in a local pizzeria a poster for a gig by Mark Eitzel (of American Music Club, who I love) playing in a pub right across the road from where I was living at the time. I remember thinking that it was the exact opposite of the old line about 'well, I wouldn't cross the road to see them....'. I had gone to Dublin to see AMC before, and it seemed he was returning the courtesy by paying me what was almost a personal visit.

This month, I was similarly gratefully surprised and impressed when a pub near where I live now, Treacy's of Ballincollig (Co. Cork), which has established a new folk club, announced it was to host Mick Flannery on 11 August and, while the tickets for that sold out quickly, we got tickets for the extra gig added, due to the demand, on the 10th.

The room used for gigs holds only 100 people, so this was certainly an intimate experience, with no-one more than 50 feet from the band in a sort of L-shaped arrangement. The 'support' was as good as I could hope - the National's 'Alligator' and 'Boxer' being played before Mick and his band came on stage and during the break he gave mid-show!

And, as for the show itself, well I think I have finally surrendered any lingering doubts I may have had about him; he is without doubt an incredible performer, song-writer and musician, and surely one of Ireland's greatest musical treasures, who deserves to be known and loved far beyond these shores.

Live, he has an almost OTT nervousness and self-deprecation (tonight's gig featured several references to the misery he was inflicting on us, including finishing by saying 'now ye can go back to being happy people', and he also admitted that he hadn't much of a stage presence), but when he plays he gets lost in the music, and that voice and playing take over and it is magical.

He started with a lovely 'Safety rope' from 'White lies' before spending most of the first half of his set playing songs from his debut 'Evening train'. For the first time that I have seen, he explained the 'concept' behind the album, about two brothers and the girl who came between them, and the whole thing made so much more sense as a cohesive tale, adding immensely to the power of the songs; there are very few artists doing this sort of thing today, and the idea that he did this for his debut while still in his early 20s may explain why he won an American song-writing prize very early in his career.

Back to the gig, he did a gorgeous guitar-led version of 'California', the lyrics of which I love for their spot-on conjuring of a man lost in a relationship which has gone far beyond his depth ('Lady, come into my room/I pretend I'm sleeping/Half an eye on you./Slow, you take off your clothes,/You knew I was watching,/Said 'How'd ya like the show',/Then I told ya I loved ya and you said/'Yeah I know'/And I thought I could die/Before I'd ever let go'.). And then, shortly after the break, after a mumbled apology for probably f**king it up, he played the most perfect version of Tom Waits' 'Martha', a song I love so much we named our daughter after it, and I finally surrendered to the greatness of the man (Mick that is, Tom's was never much in doubt).

In terms of clips, the room was very dark and my (usually) trusty N95 struggled with both the light and an unexpectedly low battery, which gave up before the break (so no footage of 'Martha', terribly sad to say). However, I did get 'The gutter' below (and, yes, even in poor light, it is on its side, being filmed in portrait, and not being able to work out how to rotate the clip - enjoy the sound anyway!):

He played three new songs on the night, all beautiful, including one called (I think) 'Cut me close' and the one below:

As a final sign of my conversion to true believer, I want to point out that Mick's albums can be downloaded on iTunes, Amazon.com (here and here) or Amazon.co.uk (here). He is on the Allmusic Guide here, his Wikipedia entry is here, his Myspace page is here, and his homepage is here. I can do no more for ye - go and find him now!