Photos: Paul Reynolds

Standing room only at strypes secret gig on main street

Damian McCarney

The effectiveness of the Stone Age Romeos alias for last night’s Strypes’ Cafe Sessions gig in Cavan town didn’t fool too many, judging by the crowd. Every nook and even some crannies of Chapter 1 had someone wedged into it. Before the gig had even started there was standing room only, and that room was on Main Street. A line of die-hards even endured a downpour to stand transfixed, gazing through the window.
It was worth it.
The Strypes were polishing up their show ahead of the national tour, which will see them return to Cavan Townhall next month - but it’ll be hard for them to improve on last night’s show.
A 21-strong set-list taped to the floor by singer Ross Farrelly offered very few recognisable tunes but as guitarist Josh McClorey later explained to the crowd, this was the very first time they had played any of their new material live - it went down a treat.
Many of the new tracks veered away from their trademark R&B, into post-punk and indie rock.
One song sounded like a homage to Elvis Costello’s Watching the Detectives - there was no effort to hide their admiration, as the bespectacled one featured on Ross’s t-shirt. Pete O’Hanlon’s t-shirt meanwhile was a bespoke Stone Age Romeos number. The musical styles may have varied from song to song but the pace didn’t - from their cover of MC5’s Kick Out The Jams opener to the five song encore - it was a relentless, super-charged assault. Only compere Joe Keenan had the gumption to soften the blow with ear-plugs.
It’s a cliche for critics to talk of a band’s ‘difficult second album’ - by this performance The Strypes’ difficulty will be in deciding which tracks they should leave off the second album.

http://youtu.be/EumU5HdoBgg


Ross has literally found his voice over the past year; that combined with his renewed swagger has seen him transformed into Cavan’s answer to Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner. Pete’s bass playing is much more a driving influence in the new material, giving that rockier edge to their sound. Evan Walsh meanwhile continues to pound the drums with the graceful ease of Charlie Watts, and Josh is exploring all manner of string-scratching to bring squealing new sounds to the table. Guitar virtuoso Daragh Slacke received a huge reception when he joined the lads for covers of Big Joe Turner’s ‘Flip, Flop and Fly’ and Cream’s epic ‘White Room’.
The encore brought the more familiar tunes off Snapshot, which freed Pete to howl his way through ‘Got Love If You Want It’ on harmonica. However, for this reviewer at least, the Snapshot tunes were all but eclipsed by the fresh material.
It’d give you confidence that the trajectory of The Strypes’ rise could yet be meteoric.

Were you at it? What did you think of their new material?