From AU Magazine - Issue 32

CATHI MOORHEAD, BLUE JAR, EILIDH PATTERSON, PADDY MCKEOWN

MCHUGH'S, BELFAST

28.11.06

There are paltry few in attendance for opening act Cathi Moorhead. Save for her guitarist who played some brusque, occassionally interesting guitar, and at least had the good grace to look embarrassed, this was a performance absolutely devoid of merit. Chick lit set to indie-rock light, Moorhead's warble set my teeth on edge and she even played the tamborine cack-handed. A sad, whimpering start.

Now you certainly wouldn't accuse Blue Jar of being cack-handed, these heartless automations churn out sterile easy-listening/classical covers with alarming precision. This was garden fete music, polite, refined, pointless. Blue Jar an emotionally empty vessel. And the cover of 'Blue Moon', I like that song, but not when the vocalist sounds like a botched castrati.

Swine before pearls. Just when I'm beginning to seriously contemplate doing a Van Gogh ear double, Eilidh Patterson offers up a set which almost constitutes an act of musical redemption.

There is a Gemma Hayes feel to her music, pleasingly stripped back, sweetly meandering acoustic numbers. The sense of heartache and emotional discord contained in songs such as 'Everything Happens for A Reason' and 'Trouble' provide the evening's first moments of genuine feeling.

The musical ascension continues as Paddy McKeown and band take centre-stage. Unbowed by the alarmingly small audience, McKeown and gang exhibit sterling professionalism, refusing to simply go through the motions and, in doing so, succeed in delivering a thrilling set. McKeown's classical schooling shines through, the additions of strings and brass adding flesh to the standard indie-rock template, 'Scene In The Park' registers as substantial, important music. And when he sings, McKeown is a veritable contortionist twisting and turning to hit those notes on 'Leo', his unique vocal styling lending an ethereal, sometimes dark timbre to the music.

Like Andy Dufresne in 'The Shawshank Redemption', we've had to crawl through a dark excremental tunnel, but in the end the reward of Patterson and McKeown's music has been worth it.