Pic: Carlos Dasco
FREAKISH violent weather has followed James Vincent McMorrow everywhere he has been on his Post Tropical Tour this year, from the searing heat of Tasmania to his touring bus nearly being washed into the Atlantic at Salthill’s Seapoint Ballroom. He arrives into Limerick with the worst flooding to hit the city in decades in his wake. “That’s what you get for calling your new album Post Tropical, I guess”, he tells a rapt full-house at Limerick’s University Concert Hall last weekend.
Playing a set that borrows equally from his debut and sophomore recordings, McMorrow’s music is anything but stormy, its a mix of the plaintive folk textures of old and the sparse electronic landscapes of his new recording. Standing on a stage surrounded by glacial stalagmites in front of a winter moon screening 3D projections, the mood is set for an evening of music for headphones. In keeping with the, less is more theme, there are only three musicians on stage with James. They are all multi-instrumentalists switching from guitars to synths to mandolin, drums or handclaps and backing vocals to perfectly re-create the multi layered sounds of Post Tropical.
As well as the music, it is McMorrow’s engaging delivery that wins over the UCH audience, a bit of self deprecating banter goes a long way to making this an intimate show. James is a fan of Kanye, his first live gig was Garth Brooks in Croke Park, his guitar tech worked with Prince and McMorrow’s last time playing Limerick was upstairs in Dolan’s on a small stage. Much has changed for the better since then. New songs Cavalier and Gold get a warm reception as the tones and textures of McMorrows classy music wrap around us, he gets a standing ovation after the encore before we make our way back out into the night and the storms.
