As the irrepressible Charlatans roll into Dublin, those of us at the 3Olympia early enough are the as Dublin singer-songwriter Aoife Nessa Frances takes to the stage. Taking tunes from her debut album ‘Land of No Junction’, released back in January 2020, her sounds flits inbetween experimental, psychedelic and folk music. Sadly, its hard to hear her tonight as the crowd chat and catch up, somewhat annoying – why do people bother going in for the support only to disrespect them by talking the whole way through?
Aoife Nessa Frances (click on the thumbnail to see full image)
Thanks full those who listened engage with Aoife, and she receives a great reception, at least from those people, throughout her 30 or so minute set.
Then it’s the turn of The Charlatans, and the band arrive on stage at first without erstwhile Tim Burgess. As he appears, so the joy of being back playing live is written clearly on his face throughout, and he retains that throughout.
The band do exactly whats needed, Burgess explaining the tour is a retrospective of their formidable cannon of work, and so the band explode into a 22 song set, stopping only briefly to introduce the songs and interact with the crowd – and despite refusing a hat offered from the throng (we do live in Covid times after all), they remain steadfastly onside throughout the evening.
The downstairs standing of the venue was jam packed and the seating circle balcony doesn’t have many empty seats as folks dance the night away, and once the band launch into ‘The Only One I Know’ the venue erupts, and from then on no one makes use of the seats.
The Charlatans (click on thumbnail for full image)
