Live Review: Sinead O'Brien - Green Store Door, Brighton 19/10/2022
Sinead O’Brien indulges in the abnormal in rapturous Brighton performance.
Only at the start of a lengthy UK tour, the Dublin singer/songwriter showed no sign of wear in a fantastic performance at Green Door Store this past Wednesday night. Playing through her three-year discography which includes the recently released debut album “Time Bend And Break The Bower”, O’Brien’s cryptic and abstract lyricism and noir-punk sound shone bright on stage.
The show opener is also the first song of her newest LP, “Pain Is The Fashion Of The Spirit”, a minimalist piece which includes only a simple electronic drum pattern and O’Brien’s vivid spoken word storytelling. Julian Hanson and Oscar Robertson, long-time collaborators of the Irish singer’s, shortly introduce themselves to the crowd with some ecstatic energy, making a considerable amount of noise for a three-piece.
Another highlight of the first part of the set was the performance of “Most Modern Painting”, a single released in the depths of the national lockdown two years ago which contains some of the most intriguing lyricism of O’Brien’s discography: “We are the echo of the sound, We have not yet heard, We are the image of the thing, We have not yet seen”.
“Girlkind” included some of the most dazzling guitar parts of the set, the wide range in tone justifying the absurd size of the pedalboard seen on stage. “Holy Country”, a hit which the trio played on BBC’s Later with Jools Holland earlier this year, was the penultimate song played on the night as the energy built throughout was only intensifying with each song.
The set ended on a twist of genres with “Spare for My Size, Me”, an 80’s synth-pop influenced track which is led by an arpeggiator loop and soul-crushing guitar chord hits evolving into perplexing rhythms of strumming and note bending.
It is difficult not to have your gaze frozen onto the stage with the fluency in abstract spoken word lyricism shown, backed so powerfully by two incredibly talented musicians who altogether make not a single mistake throughout. This is a well-rehearsed performance disguised as erratic, helter-skelter post-punk, and this only makes it more engrossing and spectacular.
Words by Jay Cohen
