Dublin Gospel Choir featuring Neil Hannon, Cathy Davey and Paddy Casey (Olympia Theatre, Dublin)
By James Hendicott
Snaps by Ian Keegan
If only every Easter brought out something this much more interesting than a diet-busting selection of chocolate eggs and a couple of days off work. Okay, so the latter is pretty interesting, but combining the seasons traditional religious bent with some genuine local contemporary stars is certainly a nice touch, and when those stars include the sublimely random Mr. Hannon, you won’t hear any complaints from us. At least not on the contemporary side.
Sadly, though, the ‘featuring’ end of this bill, which, in truth, is the end that brought us along in the first place, is sadly lacking. Hannon and Davey share just three songs, and while Hannon’s Father-Ted-themed ‘ecclesiastical number’ (chuckle) “Songs Of Love” sounds exceptional with the entire choir behind him, Davey’s “Universe Tipping” is not quite so inspired. Their duet comes across a touch self indulgent, if sweet given their well-publicized romance.
Casey’s contribution is similar: passing up on the not-quite-appropriate smash “Saints and Sinners”, he takes the time to road test a couple of new tracks in a performance that’s just a touch sketchy. His new ‘political song’ is surprisingly sharp given the singer professes no knowledge of politics whatsoever (and even claims to tell tourists that the Taoiseach stays in ‘until he fucks up’), with a catchy, cyclical style. Casey’s cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” takes a witty turn when he introduces the song as being appropriate because “I’m a black woman”, only to have a substantial lady of such a description in the front row repeating his words back to him with impressive sarcasm. A classic moment.
Those bonus appearances take up no more than 25 minutes of a total set length of nearly three hours, though, and three hours is a lot of gospel music. To be fair to the choir, they’re well organized and many of them have genuinely outstanding voices, though equally, there are one or two soloists who are no more than average. There’s a familiar face at the forefront of some songs – former X Factor starlet Sinead Conway is now a firm part of the sizable line up – but it’s a witty gentlemen who storms the stage and pumps up the crowd during his version of Jackie Wilson’s ‘Higher and Higher’ who really steals the show.
There are other excellent moments, too: Primal Screams ‘Moving On Up’ is a nice modern touch to a largely old-school set, and sits well, while an extremely mellow choral adaption of old Irish ballad ‘May The Road Rise To Meet You’ is almost tear jerkingly touching. For the most part, though, what the Dublin Gospel Choirs practices is very much what we’ve come to expect from this kind of performance: they fall somewhere between those hideous forms of American worship that occasional sneak to on our televisions, and the likes of Sister Act and Glee.
Like all of the above (the worshippers aside, perhaps), the choir is technically extremely proficient. They problem is more in the choice of songs: upbeat enough to be absolutely sickly sweet, and, after three hours, more likely to cause a sugar overdose than Sunday’s chocolate supply. For an hour we genuinely enjoy ourselves: this is not something we see often, and songs dedicated to characters like a Dublin bus driver who quit his job to go and help win East Timor independence are a very nice touch. Then there are efforts like ‘Higher and Higher’, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘Lean On Me’ and ‘I Believe I can Fly’, tracks that are only enjoyable after more than half a dozen listens if you’re reading into their religious back story, be it purposefully there or not. We’ve already heard them far too many times, and tonight’s performance, while tight and lively, is just not at a level that’s going to lift that kind of track to anything other than the most awkward form of musical cheddar.
By the time we come round to the likes of ‘Oh Happy Days’ and ‘Joyful Joyful’ we feel like we’ve wandered into a church service at which we don’t really belong. And while we appreciate the music, and we’re certainly grateful for the between song charisma and the stunning selection of little-used special guests, the best part of three hours is just far, far too much. Basically, we’re trapped in ‘Glee’, and given the choice we’d certainly have changed the channel. At least an hour ago. But sometimes you need to try something new, and at least we can say we took the time.
