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GAVIN GLASS AND THE HOLY SHAKERS
The Village, Dublin
27 July 2007
On Friday the 27th of July, the Village in Dublin played host to Gavin Glass and the Holy Shakers after their whirlwind tour of the country over the previous few weeks.
Glass consistently puts on a quality show whether solo or with the band, but there’s a real element of a theatrical show to the bigger shows with the Holy Shakers, and they’re all-round entertainment.
After a support set ably provided by Cathy Daly and her band, Gav and the Holy Shakers were introduced by a character one could only describe as a circus announcer, with more than a hint of Southern preacher in the idea of the storied great revivals in the South in the 19th and early 20th Century, complete with straw hat and walking stick.
The sound of Gav and the Holy Shakers could only be described as Southern rock by way of country and gospel, with a big dollop of Elvis and early U2 thrown into the mix. With a setlist that included a mix of new songs and a few tunes from their previous album “I Want the World to Teach Me to Sing” including the excellent “Skinny Girlfriend”, they were certainly well-received in spite of the background hum of quiet conversations of an audience that seemed to largely know one another.
New single “Older than My Years” teases the audience, giving glimpses of the higher energy of the band then taking it down a bit, with tantalising hooks that finally lets loose with no-holds-barred energy toward the end of the song. Gav also did a gorgeous duet with Cathy Daly entitled “Ragdoll”, calling for a bit of a hush as the song was a quieter tune, that will be on the forthcoming album which he announced was in the bag.
Partway through their set, Gav and the Holy Shakers vacate the stage to allow the character of “Toby Gatsby” to have a few words. A man in a tracksuit and baseball cap, carrying a plastic bag with a bottle of Linden Village cider that he takes a swig out of, wanders onto the stage toward the microphone, looking slightly confused. A few people seemed put off by it, immediately judging and going out for a cigarette rather than wait and see what happened. Of course, he leans in to the microphone… and very eloquently speaks about judging people by their appearances, and finishes his few words with “and I also believe in keeping it country”… at which point Gav and the Holy Shakers return to the stage for a rip-roaring tune that has many people in the crowd- previously restrainedly clapping their hands and nodding their heads- dancing their hearts out.
And of course with a crowd that consisted of a good few people who knew Gav and each other, there were plenty of shout-outs to members of the audience, and as it turned out it was an audience member’s birthday, so Murph had the whole audience in the Village singing happy birthday to him led by Gav and the Holy Shakers.
For the encore we were treated to the beautiful “New Lovers Arms” featuring Glass on piano, followed by “Sweet Ophelia”. For final song “Wrecking Ball”, the whole band went mental on stage, if possible giving it even more energy than the rest of their high-energy set, and the Southern preacher character came back out to preach to the crowd, gesticulating so much with his book at the microphone that Gav was ducking at the piano to avoid getting hit, and laughing at the same time.
“Older than My Years” is available for download as a single on iTunes.
Lisa Rooks