Norianna Kennedy with support from Tremolo
Monday 23rd July 2012 – Black Box, Belfast
The warm up act for Noriana Kennedy in the Black Box was the Irish Traditional group Tremolo. This group is made up Donal Donnelly, Donncha Moynihan, Stijn Van Beek and Karl Nesbitt. These are four Irish Traditional musicians seemingly unafraid of adapting new styles for their original arrangements and compositions. One of the many songs that they played included an original piece which was written by Donal Donnelly called ‘Think Tank’. Donal explained the basis of the song stating that it was written during his time living abroad on his own and was mostly inspired by the melody of a song played by a Hungarian band. The song itself was quite emotional piece he explained saying that one of the lines was “I thought it was raining but it was just the tears in my eyes”. The band members showcased their wide range of instrumental talent playing a wide variety of instruments ranging from the uileann pipes, guitars and a fiddle to a didgeridoo and a bazooka (No not the weapon!). They played a mixture of slow airs, jigs and reels and without a doubt they sufficiently warmed up the audience in preparation of Noriana Kennedy.
After the crowd was given an opportunity to chat, get drinks or go outside for a breath of fresh air, Noriana Kennedy and her band took to the stage in the Black Box, thanking everyone for coming out in support. They started the performance with a rendition of ‘Mamma blues’, showcasing their talent for arrangements and harmonising. For the show, band members Noelie McDonnell, Nicola Joyce and Trevor Hutchinson played guitar and mouth organ, guitar and bodhran and double bass respectively. The rest of their performance consisted of beautiful versions of Gospel working class song, ‘Hold on’, and ‘The Queen of December’ which was sang by Noelie McDonnell. Both his performance and the singing style of Nicola Joyce on ‘High Shelf Booze’ alongside lead singer Noriana proved the talent of this group, each performer receiving a loud rapturous applause from the crowd.
Noriana took the opportunity to perform some of her own tracks including a waltz called ‘Dear My Maker’ and ‘Poor Ellen Smith’. These very much encapsulated the style of music that the band are renowned for. They cover a wide range of genres such as Irish Traditional and American Folk, but marry them together well.
The end song for the band was ‘All Night Long’, before this Noriana explained that she would like to be able to perform this song more often and thanked the Black Box for their support. As soon as they finished their rendition of ‘All night Long’ the audience began calling for an encore, something which the band quickly obliged to. They performed a track called ‘All Your Fault’; a rousing song, evident through the participation of the crowd by singing “all your fault” along with Noriana and Noelie. Following this song the band took their bows to incredible applause from the audience, an audience which clearly enjoyed the skilful, melodic and varied performances of both Tremolo and Noriana Kennedy and her band.
