Damien Dempsey/ Stephen Fretwell
@ Water Rats – 15th March 2004

by Kate Etteridge

Out of all the Saints’ holidays, St Patricks Day generally gains the most coverage and notoriety, and produces the most parties and celebrations than the others (remind me, who is the patron saint of Wales??) On this rather miserable Monday in London, the Irish theme of the week was kicked off in style at The Water Rats, opening with a performer from, er, the North of England…bear with me….

…Stephen Fretwell wandered onstage around 8.30pm and immediately went into ‘Emilie’, a quiet and melancholy affair, straightaway drawing the crowd into his personal heartbreak and troubles. The success of an acoustic singer/ songwriter has got to be dependent on winning over the audience, armed only with a guitar, and pulling everyone together to listen with rapt attention. Fretwell seemed to ease into this gracefully, tugging at the hearts of all watching him, asking of his unseen audience of one ‘where the wind beats heavy on the shore, do you want to come with me’. Third song in changed the tempo to create a more upbeat buzz within the room with ‘What’s That You Say, Little Girl', the history of a relationship past laid bare for all to hear. Throughout the set, Fretwell kept the songs tight together with a strong rhythm on the bass string, not allowing his escapist, romantic tales and dreams to wander too far off track – tales of New York, ‘the city that never sleeps’ and the desire of living this American fallacy of freedom. Even when lyrics turn to swearing,‘fuck what they say’, the usual sharpness of such a word is dwarfed by its context and is almost hidden by his yearning vocals. Creating and weaving songs out of immense yet simple imagery and symbols, last song of the set using nature - a tree - as an allegory for his relationship, ‘it’s a shame that the root of it’s me’, it’s no wonder that the 40 or 50 strong crowd that had gathered gave him rapturous applause as he finished the song.

Looking less like a sensitive acoustic performer and more like a doorman in the heart of Dublin city centre, Damien Dempsey, flanked by his band, flew headfirst into strong opener ‘Seize the Day’. Evoking the spirit of grabbing the bull by the horns and making the most of every single day, Dempsey’s powerful voice along with the band filled the entire room, soaring up and out into the air, forcing most of the audience (which excitingly included Morrissey and Chrissie Hynde) to start unconsciously tapping their feet and nodding their heads along with the song. ‘Negative Vibes’ displayed the style that won Dempsey the two Meteor awards in Dublin, moving more into Irish folk territory, both in style and in song content, describing the type of negative vibes that can be crippling and asking for ‘the strength’ to conquer this. Unlike Fretwell, Dempsey delivered his songs as diatribes, raging against bullies, greed, American foreign policy and drugs among his social concerns, using traditional protest music styles from Irish folk to basic reggae rhythms to convey his strong feelings ('Celtic Tiger', 'Colony'). Spoken word merged with marching drums to fuel momentum, indicating the feeling bubbling below the surface, adding urgency and passion to the subject matter – such as Colony, which he had jokingly introduced as a song to ‘lift our spirits’ (note the irony, the song is about European colonisation). Halfway through Dempsey turned away from the political and focused on the personal – 'Ghosts of Overdoses' promising to take his lover ‘away from here’ and 'Apple of my Eye dedicated to those who died on September 11th. Returning to his narrative songs quickly, Alibi' took a dig at superficiality and the culture of trends and posturing, with Dempsey’s unmistakably powerful Irish waver and wail warning us of the temptations of following the crowd. Totally engaging and enthralling, Dempsey chose 'Bad Time Garda' to finish – a massive sounding song with an almost deafening finish, partly due to the sheer force of his vocals and the crowd’s appreciation for this man. The inevitable and much craved encore revisited his childhood with the trials and tribulations of growing up ('Factories'), offering up landscapes, situations that most can relate with, a voyage of self-discovery touching a chord within every single audience member, keeping up with the folk tradition of passing the stories on through generations, but sounding just as relevant and more importantly, just as vital as ever.