Friday 30 January 2009

The Cowboy X gig on thursday night - really, REALLY great.

Dya ever have one of those times where you've been vaguely planning to go out to a gig but then the night in question arrives and the weather is pig awful & you've just discovered a massive hole in the sole of your favourite boots which is letting all the water in & soaking your feet & you're all like "dude, I'm not arsed with this shit" & you're this close to just staying home instead and watching Grey's Anatomy & then you go and it turns out to me really amazing & fun & totally worth your while? Well I had that last night.
Of course being the Cowboy X obsessive that I am, I was never REALLY gonna miss the gig just cos of the weather, but it was touch and go for a while until I figured I should just go home & change shoes & THEN go out to the gig.
The gig in question was in a nice little intimate room upstairs in Whelans with the lovely Butterfly Explosion playing in another room just yards away so very economical all around really.
Support came from the oddly named but surprisingly soulful Play Monkey! Play! who came across as a sort of early-Radiohead-fronted-by-Alecia-Keys kind of affair and played a charming acoustic set which did actually included a rousing cover of Fallin' by the above mentioned Alecia Keys.
Cowboy X then take to the stage with the male members (drummer John, guitarist David and bassist Wayne), abandoning their traditional black but with singer Karen completely making up for it with a spectacular red and black space suit ensemble replete with shiny chaps which for some bizarre reason made me think of Hot Gossip's "I Lost My Heart to a Star Ship Trooper"... but y'know, in a REALLY good way!
I'm not sure if it was cos some of the crowd were related to the band or just that the hardcore fans were out in force last night but the buzz all around was electric through out. The band kick off with instrumental "Starsky and Hutch" before crashing straight into the epic "Gabbi", by the end of which McCartney seems to happily abandon her own vocals entirely in favour of the crowd's endearingly tuneless but enthusiastically loud version being sung back at her. Awww...
The rest of the gig mixes energetic renditions of tracks from debut album Who Are These People? such as "Shot Down", "2nd Second", "Live and Learn" and most importantly, "Between The Hit and the Miss" (my personal fave) with a smattering of one or two tracks from the elusive second album (which should be coming out around September time according to John & Karen!) with the forthcoming single Break Me and a gorgeous PJ Harvey cover towards the end. The best thing about the gig though was that it was one of those of those kinds of gigs where the crowd & band seemed to be really vibing off each other & having a really good time, far more so than the last couple of times I had seen them.
Basically it was just a cracking gig & if you still haven't seen them live yet they're back in Dublin on the 6th of March for the Phantom FM First Friday and are touring around Ireland on the following dates:


6 Feb 2009 20:00 - Spirit Store DUNDALK
7 Feb 2009 20:00 - Chasin’ Bull BUNDORAN
13 Feb 2009 20:00 - The Clarence SLIGO
14 Feb 2009 20:00 - The Stables MULLINGAR
6 Mar 2009 20:00 - Phantom FM First Friday DUBLIN

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