Live Review :: The Murder Capital :: The Jericho Tavern, Oxford - Jun 27 2019

Credit: Stuart Bryce

Live

The Murder Capital 

The Jericho Tavern, Oxford 

June 27 2019

Words: Linn Branson 

Pictures: As credits 

Reviewing can be a curious business: trying to give an objective opinion on something which is, ultimately, a subjective experience, whichever way one tries to couch it. What you about to read here is a rather long, not so much a review, as an overview, on The Murder Capital.

If your attention span is limited to nothing longer than a paragraph, here's the short review: they were bloody good. Go and see them. If you're in it for the long run, settle down and give over the next minutes to digest.

As the Dublin post-punk band begin in earnest their build up to August's debut album drop, with festival appearances, a July UK tour, a series of in-store performances/meet 'n' greets, plus a further UK and European onslaught in October/November, Little Indie will be following their course over this crucial period. Can they live up to the hype? Can they succeed in equalling their Dublin comrades' Fontaines D.C.'s success? Will they be able to crack the US market as well as IDLES have done next year? Right now, The Murder Capital look like the 'grown up', more mature version of their 'kid' contemporaries; an arguable point, perhaps. They have all the makings to be either something important... or to have their flame extinguished well before even contemplating a second long-player, as has been the case with a multitude of 'ones to watch' bands who fail to build on their initial body of work.

Credit: Senay Sargut

Just prior to going on stage at this rescheduled early May show in Oxford - when laryngitis befell vocalist James McGovern - the frontman and lyricist had snapped a copy of the night's setlist which he placed on his social media account. Nothing so odd about that - except for strategically placed over it was a copy of Stendhal's work 'Love'. Should you not be familiar with this tome, it was written by the French 19th-century writer at a critical time in his life; the book a thinly disguised picture of the author's innermost feelings. Though it ranges over a wide variety of topics, the central theme is Stendhal's account of love - an intense, romantic and generally unrequited love.

When the artist places a copy of a book on top of his setlist, just above three songs and the book is 'a thinly disguised picture of the author's innermost feelings'. Well, you have to ask don't you? Random gesture? Or an attempt, as Stendhal effected, to not just give a covert understanding of the songs, namely 'Don't Cling To Life', 'For Everything' and 'Love Love Love', but to bring together the conflicting sides of his nature, dissecting the feelings conveyed in those songs: the deeply emotional and the coolly analytical.

Credit: Stuart Bryce

To the casual observer looking at the band's setlist it may be seen merely as a collection of their best songs to date laid out with a big-hitting start ('Feeling Fades', 'More Is Less, 'Green & Blue'), that moves into a contemplative middle section ('Slow Dance I, 'Slow Dance II', 'On Twisted Ground'), before rising again to a final denouement on the songs as previously mentioned ('Don't Cling To Life', 'For Everything' and 'Love Love Love'). If one looks - or more aptly, listens - you see that this is actually as carefully constructed as the acts in a play, or the chapters in a book: each follows the other in sequential order to convey a story, to unfold layers on a poetic and sonic landscape, to become something more akin to a theatrical experience than a mere 45-minute music event.

The Jericho Tavern's relatively small floor space, and even more diminutive stage, makes for an up close and intimate gig. There's no grand arrival by the band from the side of the stage, instead, their entrance is from the back of the room where they navigate the densely packed bodies in not so much a parting of the Red Sea fashion, as weaving their way, snakelike, through to the front, as hands reach out on both sides to proffer shoulder pats en route. The four-man contingent of Damien Tuit (guitar), Cathal Roper (guitar), Gabriel Paschal Blake (bass), and Diarmuid Brennan (drums) are the first to take up their places, artfully building expectation for their frontman to join them, which he does some while after.

Credit: Stuart Bryce

It is often the case that however good a band may be in its collective whole, the attention is undeniably directed at the frontman. But credit here must be given to Tuit, Roper and Brennan who provide a glorious integral backdrop on 'Green & Blue', while Blake delivers such an understated, grace personified accompaniment on 'On Twisted Ground'.

The recruiting of Blake, previously with For Foresters and Thumper, to replace the previous Murder Capital bass incumbent, was an inspired choice. He plays the perfect foil to the darker side of McGovern; his jerky movements and energetic, propulsive playing like he is wired up to an electrical circuit, are as much a focal point as his comrade's intense and forcefully projected presence. Despite the 'menacing', 'threatening' appellative used to frequently describe the band's demeanour, when Blake, towards the end of the show, stands to the edge of the stage, guitar neck pointed directly towards the front in machine-gun poise, a glare fixed on his face, the effect is not perceived so much as a fearful 'hell, what's going to happen next?', but with a grin and 'gwan with yer, lad!'. If we take the Jesuit adage of 'show me the child until he is seven and I'll show you the man', it is all too easy to picture the young mischievous Blake in short trousers, leading his parents and teachers merry hell with his endless jokes, and spirited pranks, but ultimately getting away with blue murder rather than a box round the ears, due to his cheeky grin and likeable nature.

Credit: Senay Sargut

When McGovern finally alights the stage, clad in his now familiar dark suit (the jacket of which being usually shed just before the second song, and reclaimed on the outgoing number, thereby signalling an unspoken closure to the set), and sporting underneath a black t-shirt with a red Bob Dylan monogram, proceedings begin with 'Feeling Fades'. It's a sharp, visceral get-in that, joined by Blake's bassline, shatters your senses with its unmitigated call for union. 'More Is Less' is much more with its battering lyrical intro, "If I gave you what you wanted / you’d never be full / That’s the trappings of your boyish mind / Become unshakeable”. The nerve-quivering, spat out line, "and I love it", make you do just that; though the unrelenting aural bruising this song imparts may take some time to warm to. Unlike 'Green & Blue, however, which, as already mentioned, is impeccable in its instrumentation; those instantly recognisable opening chords lead you submissively into its hues, around which the chorus line, "I’ll correlate the blue the green and blue the green for you", blurs the line between heart and head. Personally, I think it is their best offering so far - bar a certain other which I will come to shortly. It is certainly the most accessible if you're yet to become a convert to The Murder Capital.

The triumvirate of 'Slow Dance I, 'Slow Dance II', and 'On Twisted Ground', starts with the complementing slow, haunting bass and vocal, as McGovern softens his baritone as he sings, "Came home from somewhere / Somehow covered in myself / Came home from nowhere / Somehow now I’m someone else"; it's elusive, mercurial, and feels a world apart from the two songs that started the set, yet, of course, they are inextricably linked. 'Slowdance II' reaches beyond in its instrumental ownership that allows their craftsmanship to take centre stage. McGovern, here, sits on haunches against the wall to one side, going into the zone of what is going on around him, yet at the time time, appearing to ready himself in preparation for what comes next.

Credit: Tot Barling

'On Twisted Ground', I will admit, is a song I have difficulty with: I find it hard to watch McGovern's raw, honest and unabashed emotional performance of it, find it disturbing to listen to, and the emotions and feelings it creates within me are painful ones. And to be able to create such strong reactions, makes it quite uniquely brilliant, and for me, at least, a quite masterly work. Let us not put too fine a point on it and cut to the quick: the lyrics relate to the loss of the singer's close friend early last year, and by taking his own life cast even more of a dark and looming shadow with all the associated ramifications attached to such a passing, and what is left behind. I am purposely leaving out further reference as I think one needs to see this performed live for oneself. I will just say, that for a few seconds when I roused myself from my own reverie and looked around the room, not only were the crowd stilled en masse in reverence (quite a rare thing given the usual gig mentality for endless chatter before, after, and very often, during, songs), but I caught one man quickly rubbing his eye - an eyelash irritation, possibly? - while others remained more stoic, but with eyes cast firmly unmoving either onto the stage, or down at their feet.

The third act of the set starts with the moving dark beauty of 'Don't Cling To Life', not as riven in grief as its predecessor, but nevertheless owing much to that state of suspension through loss and the coming through it. 'For Everything' is almost like a transcendence from the song before, where the guitars and drums rub against each other, moving further into another space as the light ring of McGovern's tambourine acts like an angelic siren call, before 'Love Love Love' seals the set on piercing guitar refrains as the vocal is cast in a bleak tone of acceptance. It is here McGovern collects his earlier discarded jacket, pulls it on, briefly thanks fans, before making his exit from the stage through the crowd the same way he entered; his fellow band members slowly pacing out their similar exits as they each gradually relinquish their playing.

Credit: Stuart Bryce

And that... was a very long review when it would have conveyed the same had it just read, 'good band, good show'. But then to keep to the literary theme, and taking Samuel Beckett as an example, why say something in a one sentence when you take a few paragraphs?

To conclude, let's reconvene here 12 months from now and reassess The Murders' situation. Will we be shaking our heads and asking "what went wrong? They showed so much promise last year". Or, will we see them next June, steeped in glory playing on the main stage at Glastonbury Festival? I know what my money is on, but there's a lot that can go right, and a lot that can go awry, in that time. The future can be a fickle and arbitrary mistress. Time will indeed tell.