Photo:
Tonight’s opener, Irish solo artist Gary Dunn, performs well to a small crowd, his use of hip-hop beats and mellow folk guitar really getting the audience moving. His performance screams 'open-mic night down the pub’, a welcoming sentiment that is echoed in the next act, Vijay Kishore. Vijay’s soulful Delta-blues falsetto is as powerful a voice as you will hear this year, and lends itself beautifully to his melancholic numbers about love and failed relationships. On stage he ‘binge drinks’ not spirits, not lager, but a fine red wine, which may say something about the slightly older demographic of tonight’s audience.
Before they stormed to the top of the charts, Nizlopi have always had a dedicated live following, and this motley crew of hiphop/folk faithful (known as ‘The People’s Republic of Nizlopi’. Ahem) go wild for the boys tonight. And Nizlopi clearly feed off this close relationship with their audience – they start and end the night not on stage, but playing unplugged in the crowd, encircled by a hushed, bewildered audience. Although not the world’s best beatboxer, bassist John Parker’s percussion gets toes tapping and bits shaking. There’s a party atmosphere in the room, and you get the impression that Nizlopi’s music makes everything alright, and that ‘maybe everyone can get along’. This sense of Christmas peace and unity is reflected in Nizlopi’s ability to get the whole room singing and clapping, providing a well orchestrated, harmonised vocal compliment to the whole gig.
Singer, Luke Concannon’s, cheeky but wholesome Chas and/or Dave crossed with Mike Skinner demeanour has the room in stitches (‘It’s been an odd end to the year for us ….’). However, something feels a little too wholesome – an enforced smoking ban during the set, and Concannon’s cautious attempts not to swear, (“Nizlopi are fffffffreaking number 1”) are scarily choreographed - have these guys been marketed purely for a family orientated singles chart? Unsurprising then that the biggest cheer of the night comes as the lads belt out the great ‘JCB Song’ half way through the set. But five songs in, it becomes harder to distinguish one number from the next. Songs like ‘Helen’ sum it up – it’s introduced as a song about a girl he loved etc, a description that could fit any number of the songs played tonight. It follows a set formula – a melodic folk guitar, some audience participation, and a beatbox interlude, before the whole thing comes together in a cacophony of family fun.
This lack of variation in Nizlopi’s live repertoire may explain why their album, 'Half These Songs Are About You', only sold 8 copies when released in August of last year. Will Nizlopi, like countless yuletide number ones before them, earn the dreaded title of ‘one hit wonder’? Is this the last we will see of them, or will their feel-good folk be the soundtrack to the summer? Only time will tell.
