Paul Dempsey @ The Manning Bar 19/09/2009
September 30th 2009 09:48
Look, it’s been said enough, Something For Kate are a depressing sounding band. Their music has always come across as brooding and mellow and forlorn. That’s not to say that they are crap. But for me, Something For Kate has been a band you have to be in the mood for to listen to. So, naturally, you’d expect the first solo outing for front man Paul Dempsey to be along the same lines. But after hearing the track ‘Ramona Was A Waitress’ on the radio I was excited about this side of Paul. It wasn’t sad. It wasn’t depressing. It was almost......happy and catchy.
Headlining his first solo tour, Paul was joined on stage by ex members of Dallas Crane and his gigantic presence took over the stage. Paul is a very tall man. Standing in the upper section at the Manning bar he still seemed to looking at you eye to eye. The sold out crowd fed the performance and Paul managed work up a healthy sweat playing tracks off his debut record ‘Everything Is True’ including a take on one of the Boss’s, Bruce Springsteens’ classics plus some crowd favorites from the Something For Kate back catalogue.
Paul put in a good performance. It wasn’t pleasant to sit outside with a beer and just listen to his amazing voice at work, but in at the end of the night, I left feeling a little underwhelmed. Granted, a solo acoustic show won’t give you the same high as a rock show but I left with the feeling I get after seeing a good support band. It was good, but not what I came to see. But the problem tonight was there was no one else after him. He was the headliner and did everything to tick the boxes in keeping the crowd happy but didn’t go that extra step. If the show was a sporting contest you say that they got away with a win giving only 80%. And in sport, a win is a win, and in music a good show is a successful show but it didn’t blow my mind, so I felt a little let down. But if you manage to get a copy of the album with the bonus covers EP, the MGMT cover is great. (I’m starting to like other people play MGMT songs more than I do MGMT doing their own stuff!)
Headlining his first solo tour, Paul was joined on stage by ex members of Dallas Crane and his gigantic presence took over the stage. Paul is a very tall man. Standing in the upper section at the Manning bar he still seemed to looking at you eye to eye. The sold out crowd fed the performance and Paul managed work up a healthy sweat playing tracks off his debut record ‘Everything Is True’ including a take on one of the Boss’s, Bruce Springsteens’ classics plus some crowd favorites from the Something For Kate back catalogue.
Paul put in a good performance. It wasn’t pleasant to sit outside with a beer and just listen to his amazing voice at work, but in at the end of the night, I left feeling a little underwhelmed. Granted, a solo acoustic show won’t give you the same high as a rock show but I left with the feeling I get after seeing a good support band. It was good, but not what I came to see. But the problem tonight was there was no one else after him. He was the headliner and did everything to tick the boxes in keeping the crowd happy but didn’t go that extra step. If the show was a sporting contest you say that they got away with a win giving only 80%. And in sport, a win is a win, and in music a good show is a successful show but it didn’t blow my mind, so I felt a little let down. But if you manage to get a copy of the album with the bonus covers EP, the MGMT cover is great. (I’m starting to like other people play MGMT songs more than I do MGMT doing their own stuff!)
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