The Strypes LIVE @ Cavan Town Hall 5.12.14

The Town Hall was buzzing. The Strypes had returned to their hometown, to kick off their first ever Irish tour, in the small town of Cavan – the place where it all began. The venue was decorated with pop-art style posters and banners of the lads; in the cloak room, bar, and merchandise part. It’s evident that Cavan is extremely proud of how far The Strypes have come in their rocketing careers.

The opening act of the night was a four-piece band, also hailing from Cavan, named Travis Oaks. Like their peers they also had a raw, rhythm and blues sound. Their new self-titled EP sounded great live and they connected with the crowd automatically. Impressive to see, coming from a support act.

The Strypes strut on stage after a very humorous and intriguing introduction by Kevin McGahern. They opened with an absolutely electric cover of MC5’s ‘Kick Out The Jams’, and then without a second to breathe they were racing through ‘This Side Of Paradise’, a song that will most definitely be a hit when they release their second album next year. This brand new tune has a thrilling guitar riff and a contagious, heavy drumming beat that had the venue shaking.

After performing their hit song ‘What A Shame’ and another new track called,’Best Man’- the audience had a chance to appreciate the bizarre stage set of old televisions, with an array of ska/punk type images gliding behind the prosperous band. Frontman, Ross Farrelly, was wearing his signature shades, along with drummer Evan Walsh, who was also seen to be sporting a pair, in keeping with his monochrome ensemble. This band never fails to impress musically, or in terms of style.

Another new tune they performed was ‘Rejection’ – Walsh’s drumming definitely dominates this particular song, and it is bound to go down very well when it is eventually released. The lads confidently zoomed through ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’, a chaotic crowd pleaser from their EP ‘4 Track Mind’ which was released in February earlier this year.

One of the highlights of the night has to of been the lads cover of Howlin’ Wolfs ‘Smokestack Lightning’, they did this song a good bit during the summer festival season, and it was an excellent surprise to discover it on the setlist again. The bassline O’Hanlon contributes to that tune is a winner every time, without fail.

After Farrelly gave a swift happy birthday shoutout to his brother; he announced the next song of the set was one written by bassist, O’Hanlon- the first song he has written for the band. The lads effortlessly rolled through the track ‘Now She’s Gone’; the chorus is much different to the rest, showcasing the bands diverse technique perfectly. Following that, the Cavan lads lifted the roof with two of their hit songs ‘Mystery Man’ and ‘Hometown Girls’; a song bound to get quite a response at one of their hometown gigs..

Before evacuating the stage prior to the encore, The Strypes performed another spick-and-span track, ‘I Need To Be Your Only’. Farrelly helped the crowd get a grasp on the tricky lyrics in the chorus, and once they had it, it was engraved in their minds forever…or at least until the end of the gig. “I need to be, oh babe i gotta be/ baby i just need to be your only”. Farrelly’s dynamic vocals echoed through every inch of the venue for this standout tune.

At one point of the gig, McClorey welcomed a ‘special guest’ to the stage; Darragh Slake. When he came on stage, his guitar was out of tune, and to everyones surprise…he set it on fire, and up in flames it went, much to his amusement! The fire extinguishers filled the stage with vast amounts of smoke, and the Town Hall fire alarms loudly rang through the building. It wouldn’t be a Strypes gig though, without reams of madness. McClorey’s exact words were “We’ll carry on, we’ll carry on.”

The exhilarating mayhem didn’t stop there, though. Shortly after the fire alarm, their legend of a bassist-Pete O’ Hanlon,changed into a Santa suit. Before the crowd had time to realize what had happened, O’Hanlon was bombarding the audience with selection boxes, and shooting silly-string at them from plastic guns. His white Santa beard had escaped from his face, and was floating through the air whilst he took to his notorious, manic harmonica solo.

After the loud, demanding voices from the Town Hall shouted “One more tune”, The Strypes took to the stage for a final few songs. One of the highlights of the entire night being their unquestionably explosive cover of ‘I Predict A Riot’ by the Kaiser Chiefs. McCloreys guitar riff veered dangerously close to the crowd, before throwing his guitar into the pit at the last moment of the show, and storming off stage with his band mates.

I cannot praise The Strypes enough, and urge you to listen to them. You won’t want to miss this explosive band.