Alex O’Connor also known as Rex Orange County brought his ‘Who Cares’ tour to a sold out Iveagh Gardens crowd on Friday the 15th of July. With no support on the night Alex took to the stage at 8.30 and brought an hour and half of soulful goodness to the crowd who absolutely loved every second.
The stage was decorated with several large flowers with disco balls in the middle, large thumb emoji’s all over the stage and a large ‘Who Cares?’ banner in the background. The show started with several songs from his latest album ‘Who Cares?’ including ‘MAKING TIME’, ‘KEEP IT UP’ and ‘AMAZING’. This was a strong start to the set with Alex seeming to enjoy every word the crowd sang back, enjoyment which was definitely reciprocated from the crowd.
Next up was ‘ONE IN A Million’, which saw Alex take to his keyboard setup which was embossed with a large ‘Dublin’ logo near the end of the song which was a nice change of pace. He then asked if he could play an older song before breaking into ‘Television/So far so good ‘ which was definitely one of the loudest songs the crowd sang back. Alex then sang ’10/10’, and ‘7am’ before taking his guitar for the first time for ‘ THE SHADE’.
Alex took to the keys again to perform a lovely cover of ‘Lovin’ you’ but Minnie Riperton, which he said ‘Dublin was the loudest on that one and that’s a fact’, which got the crowd even more excited.
The rest of the band took a break at this point and Alex played some songs on his own including ‘Untitled’ which brought the energy down a little bit but this didn’t stop the crowd singing along loudly. ‘Happiness’ was a highlight in the set and at the end of which Alex made note that ‘you (the crowd) are very loud’. He also played ‘Always’ and ‘Corduroy dreams’ on his own at this point.
The rejoined at this point for ‘OPEN A WINDOW’ which ramped up the energy again and got the crowd moving again. The song highlighted his band which played impeccably throughout the gig. ‘IF YOU WANT IT’ stepped up the energy once again with Alex bouncing across the stage all through the song. The crowd also loved this song jumping their way through the last verse and chorus!
‘Never Enough’ and ‘Sunflower’ brought us to another highlight of the set in ‘Beat Friend’, which was most definitely a crowd favourite with them singing back every word. The main set finished with ‘Loving is Easy’ and title track of his latest album ‘ WHO CARES?’. The encore came in the form of ‘Pluto Projector’ another clear crowd favourite.
Everything about this concert was just perfect, from the production to the crowd to the performance and left me dying to listen to more on the way home in the car. Which is always a good sign! If you get the chance definitely get yourself to a Rex Orange County concert, you won’t be disappointed!
