The Mighty Stef
Hard Working Class Heroes - The Hub, 26 August 2005
Review Snapshot:
You know, John Meagher wrote a piece in the Irish Independent the other
day, scorning the death of
the Irish music scene, those legions of talentless bums, and wannabe
hipsters? "so much music, so little talent". Well, Johnny dear, you could
have done a lot worse than The Mighty Stef in the Hub at HWCH 2005. Even if the
Mighty Stef was the only man with a guitar in Dublin, the music scene would be
vital, fresh and a more than a little bit manic.
The CLUAS Verdict? 8.5 out of 10
Full review:
This was my second time seeing The Mighty Stef play; the last was a gonzo night in Eamon Doran's, when I
was blown away by some hairy lunatic with an acoustic guitar whipping the ether
into a frenzy with disconnected strumming, and lungs that can only be compared
to aural bellows. Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' scaled these heights long ago
with the help of a full blown "wrecking crew," In Eamon Doran's that night The
Mighty Stef was one man, a mic and a fistful of chords.
Tonight was different.
In an already sweaty Hub, Stef took to the stage and plugged in. Backed by a
pretty damn tight three piece, (a new band apparently - but I never saw the last
one so who knows) this was something special. The Mighty Stef is a hard man to
categorise, you could call him punk, poetry, urban, new-wave-hairy-sweat, the
list goes on? but who cares, music is a wide and varied thing, and whatever
space you choose to pigeonhole Stef into, he inhabits it fully. He is uniquely
Irish, his voice screams it in every song, but his is not the Ireland of forlorn
romanticism, over blown stadium filling religious egotism, or Blarney Stone
rhetoric. This Ireland is something modern, something new, urban, pissed off and
loud. This is something to connect to. An Irish Kerouac? Or a fully clothed
Ginsberg? only time will tell. You're best off asking Jimmy Rabbite, he'll be
able to describe it better.
A great thing about tonight's gig, from a purely live perspective, was the
closeness of the show. The Hub is a great live venue, small, sweaty, and the
sound is usually pretty damn good. The only pain in the ass is that huge pillar
beside the dance floor, which pretty much kills the show off from the seats at
the back, but tonight that only kept the energy in. There was no separation
between crowd and stage, this was an event, a happening, it wasn't a show. There
were no cardigans sitting back to stroke their chin and offer advice on
different tuning techniques (thank Christ). The Hub was one swirling,
reverberating mess of sweat, energy and just plain good times. I didn't see one
person there who wasn't grooving on it at least a little, and there were plenty
of people getting down a lot more than that. The Guns'n'Jesus brigade would have
loved it here tonight. They could have whipped themselves up into a whirlwind of
righteous indignation, appalled by the abandon bubbling just beneath the
surface, a field day of excommunications, papal decrees, and oh so much penance.
F**k 'em, they need to get laid, and this would be damn good music to do it to.
I don't know many of the Mighty Stef's tunes outside of hearing them live, but the one song
that has stuck with me is "The Whistle Song." Its lyric is perfect, direct, and
tapped straight into the mainline. Its performance is loud, frenetic, and
contagious. The Mighty Stef is good, very good, but he could be f**king great. I
would love to see him with a full-on original band behind him: throw in a
Theremin, a mute fiddler, a deviant organist, a blind harpoonist, who knows.
Anything is then possible.
Hard Working Class Heroes is billed as an industry showcase; a chance for the
labels to spot new talent, sign them. In short: to give them a chance. After this
weekend The Mighty Stef may not have a record deal, but he should. Someone let
this man loose.
Please.
Daragh Murray
