On Hallowed Grounds

In Waterford there lies a place which once a month becomes transformed from church to an enchanting place where music can be heard and creative minds come together. If you saw St Patrick's Gateway on any ordinary night you would not be able to imagine how magnificent a venue it can become. Last Friday was the third in the series of The Between The Bars events, a venture which brings national acts down to our forgotten corner of the world as well as championing some of the best talent the South East has to offer. Naturally I have been at all of them and I have been blown away every single time.

December's Between The Bars featured Susan O'Neill and her band the Low Standards. I took advantage of the great deal Momo Restaurant have on for the night and it does help that they are just down the hill on Patrick's Street. Might be worth keeping in mind for January's Between The Bars (featuring David Kitt and Band Of Clouds) that with tickets for the gig you can avail of a two course meal plus wine or beer for just €21.50. I even went a bit crazy and ordered something other than their fish tempura. In case you are wondering I went with their black bean and quinoa burger which was delicious and of course I am always impressed when someone can make quinoa taste good because I know I have tried and failed and decided its best to just leave stuff like that to the experts. 

By the time I got to St Patrick's the space had been completely transformed. Magda did an amazing job again building on her fantastic backdrop and when it came time for the lights to dim and the bands to come on, it felt as though we were somewhere else entirely. I suppose that's the general idea.

The first band to take the stage were Susan O'Neill & the Low Standards. This was her first gig with the full band but if she hadn't told us that you would never have known it because they played so easily together it was as though they had been doing it for a long time. Susan is originally from Clare but she has been living down here long enough that Waterford people have claimed her as their own. This has been known to happen with incredibly talented people.

Susan has been writing music from a very young age and has performed with a number of bands over the years. She has a haunting voice both beautiful and incredibly powerful and her lyrics are wonderfully written and often poignant. I have only seen her perform a handful of times but I have found myself liking her music more each time. She brought a full band for her Between The Bars set and had everything from drums to flute accompanying her incredible voice. The acoustics in St Patrick's are ideal for this sort of thing and the music just swelled to fill the space. I can see great things ahead for Susan & the Low Standards and in years to come people will still be talking about the time they had the privilege of seeing her in such an intimate venue.

After a short break The Young Folk emerged to find the crowd thoroughly warmed up. The guys had a great on stage presence and there was much banter between each song. One of the band members made an offhand comment about how their drummer Paddy had been thrown in the deep end not having played with band for a while and this led to much cheering from the audience, letting Paddy know he was doing a stellar job. The band are described as alternative folk pop which I think sums up their sound pretty well. I did find myself wanting to sing along at parts only stopped by the fact that a) I can't sing to save my life (and it wasn't noisy enough on the night to mask my tuneless wailing) and b) this was actually my first time hearing the lads so I didn't actually know any of the words. Nevertheless I enjoyed the gig thoroughly. The played an outstanding set and engaged really well with the audience. I am pretty sure Paddy now has a fan club in his own right which was an unexpected bonus of playing that particular gig. The best part was when the band were called on for an encore and they took advantage of the superb acoustics in St Patrick's and came out into the audience to sing their last song of the night. It was a great way to end the show and the room echoed with their voices for long after the band left.