VILLAGERS | LIVE REVIEW
The Gate Arts Centre, Cardiff, Fri 24 Apr
Have there always been so many young men with a guitar around at the same time? It’s getting hard to differentiate and keep track of them all! FLASHBACK: Assured singer Luke Sital-Singh warmed up the crowd with his mature songs of life and love, adaptly accompanying himself on acoustic/electric guitar and keyboard. Liked the self-penned My Future and Nothing Stays The Same.
How appropriate for Villagers to have graced us with such an uplifting performance in a former church. The Gate’s intimate space was the ideal venue to hear Conor O’Brien’s pure, angelic vocals. Covering songs from two Mercury-nominated albums plus all of his latest album Darling Arithmetic, O’Brien – who played all the instruments on that – only accompanied himself on acoustic guitar here. The additional musicians enhanced a folk-pop sound you thought couldn’t get any better.
The quintet gave a rockier tinge to works like Everything I Am Is Yours and The Waves, improving on the latter‘s recorded version. Drummer Gwion Llewelyn doubled up tooting a flugelhorn, lending a jazzy vibe to songs including That Day, and the sublime, Leonard Cohen-ish early morning love letter Dawning On Me, was made even more delicate by the ethereal breeze of Cardiff-based harpist Mali Llywelyn.
Regular members Danny Snow (stand-up bass) and Cormac Curran (keyboards) also skillfully added to the rich, layered sound which was at times mellow and twinkly but edgier, too, as with Little Bigot. That song about loving someone who won’t accept you is just one of O’Brien’s that deals with sexuality and homophobia. Love, loss, death, religion, desire, soul-searching, self-acceptance and religion were several topics touched on from his brilliant work that recalls fellow singer-songwriters such as Ben Watt and Roddy Frame.
Dubliner O’Brien wasn’t overtly talky or flashy and didn’t move around a lot, but when you have craftmanship like that, you don’t need to. His demeanour, which can seem shy, was intense but also relaxed, and he showed such strong conviction. The rapt attention of the audience was evident by their stillness during the songs as they didn’t want to miss a word. A solo O’Brien then continued to mesmerise fans with the Ivor Novello award-winner Becoming A Jackal and an exquisitely delicate Ship Of Promises, giving a charming falsetto lilt at its end. Finishing up with the buoyant Courage, Villagers gave a near-flawless evening that left you shaking your head in awe.
words RHONDA LEE REALI photos JON HERRON