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Review: 'Concannon, Luke / Jimmy Davis / Beth McCarthy'
'The Duchess, York, 16th March 2014'   


-  Genre: 'Indie'

Our Rating:
I rocked up eager to check out Bored Housewife, being largely indifferent but curious about Luke Concannon, clueless about Jimmy Davis and with no idea who on earth Beth McCarthy was. I’m so down with the kids. Consequently, I was rather shocked by the turnout, a mix of teens and older women – much older: the waft of talcum powder was at times overwhelming.

Chairs had been set around tables with candles, making for an intimate and relaxed atmosphere and I elected to lurk in the shadows near the back. It was a pretty good vantage to observe Irish duo Bored Housewife, expanded to a four-piece thanks to rhythm section The Daytime Drinkers. They served up a set of sharp social commentaries dressed as breezy acoustic folk, with some keen observations on everyday life and some abrasive language: Meabh looks demur but sings songs with more fucking swearing than a fucking trucker, and Justin, too, seems an affable chap when he chats between songs – and the couple of occasions I’ve spoken with him confirm this, but from the lyrical content of the songs he’s evidently got a dark side. Bored Housewife may deal in kitchen sink dramas, but the plughole’s clogged with puke and blood. Darkly comic, Bored Housewife earn extra subversion points given the audience.

It’s not Beth McCarthy’s material that strikes me first, but her confidence. In fact, I can take or leave her pleasantly accessible acoustic pop ditties about the pains of being young, and in / out of relationships and all the rest. And then she confessed to having missed Bored Housewife because she was watching ‘The Voice’. Ah. Turns out she’s something of a local celebrity and has had her first taste of the big time on national TV. Well, fair play. And while age really shouldn’t be an issue, her performance shows a level of professionalism far beyond her years.

Jimmy Davis isn’t so much a rap artist as a slam poet with musical accompaniment courtesy of an acoustic guitarist who doesn’t hog any of the limelight. While some of his rhymes are a bit hit and miss, he’s sincere in his sentiments as he addresses environmental concerns, serves up spadefuls of sociopolitical commentary and dishes up couplets about food. He’s joined on stage – and off, as the trip made their way into the middle of the crowd for a truly unplugged session midway through the set – by Luke Concannon, who looks a shade awkward but like he’s enjoying himself, and the heart Davis pours into his performance is hard to fault.

The roles are swapped soon after: Jimmy accompanies Luke as he ambulates the venue with his acoustic guitar and regales the audience (now rather diminished since the end of Beth McCarthy’s set) with musical anecdotes inspired by his hitch-hike to Palestine and the people and cultures he met and experienced along the way. Sporting a baggy vest and loose trousers most people would only wear indoors, he cuts a curious figure, and at times it’s hard to know quite what to make of him and his songs.

There’s a naivete that could be quaintly charming or just a little odd, and I found myself sitting on the metaphorical fence for much of the set, especially when he set forth with an ‘erotic’ song about camping and jizzing over the chest of his ex with whom he’d become reacquainted. But in Concannon’s honesty and openness clearly lies a large part of his charm. The fact he’s evidently in his element and loving every minute of playing a small venue to an audience numbering fewer than a hundred when he could easily have pushed on doing what he was doing for commercial gain (Nizlopi headlined the Millennium Dome and Shepherd’s Bush Empire, toured with Jamie Cullum and supported Christina Aguilera for two nights at Wembley Arena) is remarkable. How can you be harsh to a guy so humble? The simple answer: you can’t, and it was a rare treat to spend a Sunday evening watching performers who are keeping it real and doing what they do for the right reasons.
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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Concannon, Luke / Jimmy Davis / Beth McCarthy - The Duchess, York, 16th March 2014
Luke Concannon