As the evenings grow ever darker and the wind bites a little bit harder, Hard Working Class Heroes returns for its annual showcase of the best in Irish talent across a multitude of musical genres and a range of experiences. CHASSEUR headed on down to disco town.
THURSDAY
Three piece synth band Plutonic Dust took to the stage of The Button Factory and opened the night. Fusing a sort of punk\funk with heavy basslines they are an intriguing live act, fronted by an engaging front-woman bathed in light. Elaine Mai follows, a solo act using loops, guitar, vocals and a laptop. Slight in stature, her music is minimal and personal, a delicate insight into a person’s soul. She is naturally at ease with the audience and engages in conversation throughout, thanking them in a genuine tone. Over the Ha’Penny Bridge and Hauer is onstage in the Twisted Pepper, although you would have been forgiven if you thought Cyclops from X-Men was now making music. Wearing a pair of sunglasses and a long maroon coat, this solo artist uses synthesisers to produce cinematic scores (there is also a vcr onstage, it is unclear whether it is decoration or will at some point be utilised). The small crowd who have gathered at the venue enjoy it in an on-the-spot-dancing sort of way but there is no take off point from Hauer’s set and it slightly underwhelms.
Back over the bridge and into The Workman’s for Princess, a Dublin based four-piece noise band. There’s guitars galore, and the band are enjoyable live, although as CHASSEUR looks around it notices a trend in all the venues so far. There is hardly anyone watching! There are, maybe, fifteen people at each gig and a lot of them are friends of the band or sound engineers. It is understandably pissing rain outside to put it bluntly, and it is Thursday night, but this turnout is abysmal. There is no atmosphere at any venue and it has an effect on the enjoyment levels. Hozier at the Button Factory manages to save some grace as his set is full of gospel soul, rhythm and blues and an improved atmosphere. Joined by singers and musicians this Wicklow mans set turns out to be a wonderfully enjoyable, life affirming affair. Let’s hope the feeling continues into night number two.
Night two saw a slight increase in attendance and at least it had stopped raining outside. I Have A Tribe in the Button Factory gets the evening off, a piano driven solo artist who is joined by musicians for live shows. Dublin based 3 piece Sleep Thieves follow, and they unleash hypnotic, electronic music on the unsuspecting fans as they drink from their plastic cups. The frontwoman sways around the stage casting her spells, while her bandmates bang out the tunes, it is hard to take your eyes off them. There is something captivating (in a purely non-sexual way) about an all girl group and September Girls prove they are no exception as they grace The Workman’s stage with their presence. Looking for all intents and purposes like a 60’s girl group with a penchant for superhero costumes, the girls are utterly enjoyable as they play their reverb soaked noise pop, the stage barley large enough to accommodate them with their sprawling guitars.
Staying in The Workman’s we are witness to So Cow, an odd Galway based rock band with an effervescent frontman. Between each song he chats to his fans, constantly enticing them and raising the atmosphere to heady heights. This proves to be ballsy-seat-of-your-pants rock, the audience absolutely lapping it up, eventually crowd surfing and at one point an over enthusiastic fan rushes the stage, jumps off and into the barely-there sea of people. Everyone in the venue is rocking out (well everyone up the front anyhow), getting sweaty and enjoying rock how it should be, raw and pure. Not content with inciting the audience, the frontman asks CHASSEUR’S photographer to capture “THE defining image of HWCH13” and with a finger raised on both hands the message is clear. With more songs in their arsenal the band continue to rock the only way they know how until their time slot is up.
Back in The Workman’s (can you blame us?) to open the final night and at last the crowds seem to be picking up, although it must be said it is slow and it seems to be band dependent. Swords are up, another three piece band, they produce indie electronic music, and live they are a tight unit. It is a chilled set, setting a relaxed tone for the start of the evening. Dogs at the Button Factory prove to be an energetic experience, using all the stage to thrash their instruments around like kids band practicing in their bedroom. Utilising guitars and computers to produce their music, this Dublin four piece could be a force in the future. Staying in the venue for Benny Smiles proved to be an inspired choice. Stepping out in a blazer, alone, CHASSEUR genuinely expected him to appear with a band after one song, but no, it’s just him. As it turns out he is more than enough on his own. Creating electronic music and playing guitar, Benny is by far the most charming, energetic, addictive, unique and pleasurable acts of the festival so far. He asks everyone to take “seven steps forward” and then proceeds to move and shake across the stage, never missing a note. The audience are in the palm of his hand throughout, truly captivated by his inescapable talent, showing many of the bands how it is done. Industry execs must be salivating at the prospects he presents. The quality notch stays turned up high when Funeral Suits appear, and from the moment they strike a chord they own the stage. Looking every inch the rock band they profess to be, their set is at times gothic, but never depressive. With a giant Lily emblazoned on a screen behind them (their debut album is Lily of the Valley-don’t ya know) the boys with guitars rock out, impressively so, clearly masters of their chosen instruments, much to the thrill of the now large audience gathered. Their lead singer ends the gig by placing his guitar around a girl’s neck in the audience, and as it spits out reverb she looks truly lost and scared.
I Heart The Monster Hero not only have sound difficulties in the Workman’s (this seems to be a recurring theme in this venue); but candle difficulties. Say what? Ok so they try to balance two candles on the keyboards but only one will stay put so they hand one to a willing music fan. It takes some time for this Dublin four piece to get into a good groove, but when they do they actually produce a solid set, though it never threatens to take off. The Boxing Plot follow but their set fails to impress. Unsure of whether it is the sound in the club or the band themselves, but the vocals fail to deliver especially when sung by their guitarist rather than the lead singer. He looks nervous and apprehensive, which is to be expected at a festival for upcoming talent; but allowed to sing he should not. Meeting House Square would be the venue to close HWCH13 and Daithi is the artist chosen to do it. With smoke swathing across the stage and the large crowd waiting in anticipation, the Clare lad takes his position behind his light up motherboard with its blinking lights and twiddly knobs. With enviable boundless energy, he wastes no time getting the masses moving as he mixes the sound of the fiddle with synth and drum machine in an ever increasing loop. Joined briefly by a surprisingly nervous looking Eliza Flume for one song, Daithi powers faultlessly through his performance saving ‘Chameleon Life’ for last, a large portion of fans singing the song to him before he has even begun, proof of his ever increasing popularity, and the only artist who this happens to here all weekend. In fact it is slightly surprising to think Daithi is still playing events like this, that he has not ventured into the UK and European market. He certainly has the wealth of talent to do it; CHASSEUR imagines that come next year Daithi may just spread his wings a little further. Europe you have been warned.
And with that HWCH is over for another year. There is a slight discontentment with the event as a whole though. Given its nature, namely that it is a platform for emerging talent, it will inevitably feature differing levels of live performance experience. With that in mind however, there does not seem to be a wealth of talent here. Bar maybe seven or eight bands/artists there is not much else to talk about, no bands who have that spark that make you sit up and take notice, regardless of their level of experience. Either the talent is not there or HWCH is simply not attracting it.
There is also a huge lack in atmosphere, with the opening two days suffering badly. It is of course the end of a long festival season where many people would already have spent their coffers, and maybe that has a knock on effect which is hard to control. Admittedly it is of course impossible to see and review every band/ and or venue so we are giving a cross section of the event. We also believe it is unfair to leave a band after one song to see someone else as artists quite often need the full set to perform properly, but of what we have seen the atmosphere is non existent; with Meeting House Square being prime suspect. It is simply too large an outdoor venue for a festival of this sort. From an organization point of view HWCH cannot be faulted though, there was no obvious cock ups and all the festival staff were buoyant and helpful. With all that said we can’t help but feel if HWCH was maybe a two day affair, with say fewer bands and reduced venues it might just get the jolt in the arm it so badly needs.