Theatre - Incarnate

Lauded on the local scene for the best part of two years now, Limerick’s Theatre have a way of instantly making the audience their own with every performance and only have to look at a boutique venue in Dublin or their hometown to sell it out.

I’d suggest after hitting the festival circuit on the back of this EP there’ll be nothing boutique about the venues they’ll be playing in the near future. From numerous live sightings I was familiar with the content of this EP but the quality of production on the domestic product is breathtaking. Opener ‘Gaudete’ has a bewitching onset before exploding out of the traps. It’s all so assured but with plenty of bite, like an enraged Cocteau Twins. Previous single ‘You Are’ draws from the childhood memories of the phenomenal frontwoman Maeve O’Shea. Her Treaty County lift drawing easy comparisons with the late Delores O’Riordan. ‘Messiah’ is weighty and menacing, spurred on by the audio sparring of the respective guitarists Oscar Halpin and Dara Gooney. ‘Black Swan’ sounds huge, only made bigger by Gerry Shiel’s bass driving through the mix and indeed bringing a certain texture to the whole release. ‘The Fall’ was chosen as the dramatic first taster of this band. The gut punch that Maeve O’Shea delivers with the refrain “When I think of it all, How I gave it all” continues to astonish. Ending so many sets on a high it deserves to wrap up a superb EP the same way.

The official video for the albums opening track “You Are”