Ryan Sheridan, what a year this young man has had. He went from busking to showcases to Croker, Oxegen and now he’s back doing a headline show of his own at The Academy. The crowd is clearly excitable as a video plays chronicling the year that Ryan has had kick starts the show. Just Ryans name appearing elicited a massive cheer from the assembled fanbase.
The Academy is a big venue, something as a busker he must only have dreamt about filling, but as he opens the show with the track ‘Dreamer’ you can’t help but feel the choice of song is all very apt. He dared to dream that his catchy beats and viral lyrics could propel him to fame and here we are, little over a year on and he has rammed The Academy to its rafters. There is barely room for Goldenplec’s reviewer as I manoeuvre around the venue trying to get a good view.
‘Take It All Back’ follows ‘Dreamer’ as Ryan starts his run through of his current material. Unfortunately for acts with one album there is always limited amount you can expect to see but Ryan has padded tonight with the odd cover. Johnny Cash’s – Folsom Prison Blues is the first of two covers which goes down a treat. The pace drops a bit for ‘Machine’ and for me whilst the slow stuff shows Sheridan’s versatility, it really isn’t what we are here to see. Ryan is at his best with the fast paced, finger picking intricate guitar work joined by his drummers catchy beats from wooden box or bashing at toms.
‘Stand Up Tall’ really strikes a chord with the crowd and is clearly one of the fan favourites and one of the highlights of the night as Ryan starts to hit his stride clearly enjoying this crowd as he feeds off their energy. ‘All And More’ leads into one of my favourites ‘The Game’ which gets to crowd rocking again.
One of the highlights of the night is provided as guest of Ryan’s is brought out, none other than Nick Seymour from Crowded House. Would Nick help on one of Ryan’s songs or would they play something of Crowded House like Fall At Your Feet or Weather With You were the first thoughts I had. It was the latter but I was wrong with the songs that first came to mind, they belted our a cracking rendition of ‘Don’t Dream Its Over’.
Ryan brought the show to a close with ‘The Day You Live Forever’ before thanking the crowd and leaving to chants of one more tune. Of course there was one more, the most upbeat, well-known of his tracks in the form of ‘Jigsaw’ which sent the crowd nuts. As always with the live version it is extended and padded with drum breakdowns and crowd sing along to finish the night on a massive high.
It’s clear that Ryan Sheridan is a talented performer, his confidence has grown over the year and his stage presence with it. The slower stuff isn’t quite as good as the high tempo guitar work but when Ryan gets it right you can’t help but hit the beats with him. If he continues to grow, adapt, mature and write at the pace he has in the last year, the next release from this guy could be what pushes him international. Of course second album syndrome could have something to say about that but we’re hoping he fulfils his seemingly large potential.