Seratonin, Micheal Costello

Fred Zepplins, Cork, April 1, 2000.

For a young singer/songwriter Micheal Costello certainly has a very accomplished body of work. It would be safe enough to assume that he has a Nick Drake or a David Gray record in his collection, not to mention the Thom Yorkisms on the vocal front. Only perhaps though as the set needed tightening up. It is difficult for one man and his guitar to hold a crowd who aren't here to see him for over 45 minutes. The highlight was the closing track, a stirring whisper-to-a-scream affair.

Arguably a subsidiary benefit of Nirvana is that now there is a whole range of guitarists coming on to the scene who can actually play now that they have seven or eight years in the bedroom under their belt. Seratonin's front man falls into that category.

They play an absolutely jaw dropping opening track -  think the precision rhythm and freelance guitarisms of the post-rock spectrum, occupied by the likes of Spiritualised or, dare I say, My Bloody Valentine (and this is a three piece). So did they change my world forever? Nearly. Despite what seems to be a rebellion against the old fashioned chorus-riff-verse-riff method in their more adventurous work they have a tendency to lapse into slightly overdone Kerbdog / Foo-fighters type material. However they are such damn good musicians they manage to get away with it.

Out of a ten or so song set tonight Seratonin deliver three near masterpieces which, when I think about it, is more than any pre-first album Irish band have at the moment. If they could limit there grunge/punk influences (perhaps hard when a near riot breaks out during one such number) they could be standing on the edge. Potential.

Kevin Fitton