A Different View with Dave O’Connell

As gigs go, they couldn’t have been much further apart in scale or atmosphere – 8,000 crammed into the 3Arena for the first of David Gray’s two Dublin appearances, and just 60 filling Coyne’s Gastropub in Cill Chiaráin for an unforgettable night in the presence of Lisa Hannigan.

I was lucky enough to be at both, but it wasn’t the size of the crowd that tells the real difference between the two evenings – it was the behaviour of the fans.

Because while Lisa Hannigan held her enthralled audience in the palm of her hand for a spellbinding night of rare beauty, David Gray was like a man desperately trying to bring a speeding train back under control.

It wasn’t his fault; it was the appalling behaviour of so many of the packed house that turned out, clearly having ‘enjoyed’ the sunny afternoon in some hostelry or other to the point that they didn’t feel the need to listen as much as they did to talk incessantly all night long.

There was a drugs-detection dog on a lead in the bar area but from the looks of a considerable number of the audience, he might need either retraining or at least a visit to a vet to check his sinuses.

Because it wasn’t just the drink that brought the buzz; there were so many people so clearly off their heads on cocaine – to the point that they were standing and clapping so out of time to the band that they might have been at a different show.

And this isn’t just the view of some sixty-year-old stick-in-the-mud; the morning after the night before, David Gray himself remained shocked by the atmosphere in the 3Arena.

He posted a video on social media in response to what he called ‘an absolutely mental gig’.

“People were hammered,” he said. “It was so rowdy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an audience as rowdy as that. It was a bit out of control in a way. It’s very hard to weave the subtleties and emotional context and storytelling into the show. We just had to keep our heads down and power through.”

A less diplomatic artist might have put this in more pejorative terms but he’s coming back to the same venue next month – so he diluted his criticism by acknowledging that the crowd went nuts for the big hits…Babylon, Sail Away, This Year’s Love.