The Rising – Coming Home Album Launch with support from Sara Crockett & Morgan McIntyre
Thursday 28th August 2014 – The Empire, Belfast
Ah, The Empire Music Hall. Cornucopia of many fine moments in the Northern Ireland music scene, a place where one can always hope to catch either refined artistry or comedic dissipation. As the doors open early in the evening, the music hall becomes gradually overrun with country-rock music lovers willing a seat into their view. Why they are adamant not to stand may be due to the venue’s expected format of seated gigs, one which is not so appropriate for this particular evening’s music styling. With such a relaxed atmosphere, welcoming in its tranquility, it’s difficult to imagine the magnitude of verbal commotion and hysteria from the audience that is to fill The Empire by the end of the night.
As the final few take to their seats, the first act of the evening takes to the stage. Morgan MacIntyre, the young singer-songwriter from Belfast accompanied by just a keyboard, delves straight into an intensely impassioned and musically powerful set featuring songs from her recently released EP, Dancing Down Ravenhill, along with a selection of new songs not yet heard on record. The audience, as though physically manipulated by the urgency of Morgan’s voice in perfect harmony with her keyboardist’s effortless jazz stylings, turn their heads, following every emotion and plot twist emanating from the performance of each of her story-like songs. The only thing that worries me from the outset is the musician’s ability to maintain the high standard of quality in her performance. However, she feeds on the audience’s reverence, returning the sentiment by engaging each of them with conversational lyrics and hand gestures, yet somehow simultaneously articulating such a personal performance localised within herself on-stage, with the variety of emotion and lyrical eloquence ornamented perfectly by her expressive style of movement.
The next act of the evening is Sara Crockett. Fresh from her musical adventure in Kentucky USA, Sara contributes her trademark country-pop style of music, giving the evening a lighter, more coltish aura. Upon first impression, you might think Sara is another replica of Taylor Swift – and you’d be right, to an extent. All of her on-stage mannerisms and many of her musical choices endorse this idea. However, her music and lyrics subscribe very truly and deeply to the ‘country’ themes of love and loss; she conveys her emotion and life experiences with awesome integrity, and, more importantly, shows us that her country music inspiration is much deeper rooted than first impressions suggest. Accompanied by her acoustic guitar, with her companion Joseph Ward providing the essential bass guitar and vocal harmonies, it’s easy to imagine how much more complete the songs would sound featuring a full band. In spite of the stripped-back setup, Sara performs each song with relentless compassion and commitment, singing with a very natural sounding southern-USA country music accent, emphasised with indispensable harmonies from Joseph. Alternative elements in the music are revealed in songs such as ‘So Called Friends’ and ‘Hide & Seek’; deviations from predictable chord progressions and lyrical rhymes, drawing back any attention that might have been lost throughout her short set. With beautifully suspended and perfectly resolved chorus sections spotlighted within a plethora of great songs, it’s not hard to see why Sara Crockett is considered one of Northern Ireland’s more promising singer-songwriters.
The headline act take to the stage. Opening with a classic heavy blues riff which merges into the first track from their new album, the audience are given what they came for – the self proclaimed country-pop fusion stylings of The Rising, adorned by eccentric, yet slightly transparent, stage antics from front man Tristan Harris, bassist Andy Morgan, and guitarist Chris Logan. In this respect, it is clear that this band have been looking forward to playing these new songs for quite some time.
The band make their release the focus of tonight’s show, exclusively playing songs from the new album Coming Home. They engage the audience immediately with well written hard-rocking tunes like ‘Dreaming & Scheming’, as well as softer country ballads such as the first single from the album, ‘Still Coming Home To You’. The set, and the album, is filled to the brim with excellent songs, although it seems like there is something missing. All of their songs sound very, very similar, mainly in structure. Because of this, the set feels quite dynamically anticlimactic, which makes it hard to defragment the set-list and determine each song’s quality independent of the preceding or succeeding song – this is not always a bad thing for a band, as, in other words, each song is as good as the last. The problem wherein is that to some, this might seem quite repetitious.
With melismatic guitar solo riffs at every opportunity, along with utilising feedback and wild effects, guitarist Chris Logan takes every chance he’s given to showcase his natural talent, albeit taking away from the ‘pop’ vibe and adding his own rock ‘n’ roll style to the songs. In saying that, the dynamics of Chris’ style of playing merges quite well with the drums and keys, creating profound moments of harmony, musically as well as between the band members themselves, who share a grin or a wink here and there. Bassist and backing vocalist Andy Morgan is the highlight of the evening, demonstrating stellar talent in bass guitar ability, much like Paul McCartney in that it’s hard to believe he can provide such profound vocal harmonies, articulate obscure and intricate bass riffs, and look like he’s having the time of his life all at once. To this backing track, front man Tristan Harris coalesces his raw country singing voice with expressive manoeuvres to create a very alluring and gratifying performance. Keeping with the in-control, confident demeanour he ambassadors so well, he performs breathtaking exorbitant falsettos, and utilises a harmonica to decorate the ending sequences of a few songs with an, up to now underdeveloped, country vibe. This takes the audience by surprise and invites a much deserved roar of applause and cheers from the audience.
‘Break The Chains’, an early single release featured on this album, brought an unforeseen highlight to this set. With a heavier tone to the early recorded version, yet still staying well within the boundaries of country-pop. Tristan displays raw – less melodic and more conversational – vocal tones, as though he’s asking us the question “Is there anyone out there listening?” The answer is yes, the audience are listening intently, some of the more die-hard fans at the front singing along with every word. However, the iconic moment of this song came during the middle eight, at which point the drums cut out. Instead of sitting, waiting for his moment of return, the drummer decided to spin his stick in one hand, while taking a swig of his pint of Harp Ice with the other – very rock ‘n’ roll! The song ends on a super powerful breakdown, to which the whole band intensely devote themselves, cascading passion and enjoyment infectiously from the stage.
As their set comes to an end, The Rising leave us with the memory of scintillating melodies, remarkable vocal harmonies, and perfect musical synchronisation between each member of the band. One aspect of this band’s performance that stands out is that it’s confined to such a small stage, where they would thrive much more exuberantly in a stadium with chanting fans and a larger performance area. Perhaps The Empire wasn’t the venue best suited to such a hard-rocking climax. In any case, The Rising showed their true colours and excessive levels of passion on stage, and so the stage’s size and the fact that this is a seated venue was the least of their concerns – the audience of loyal and uproarious fans didn’t seem to mind, either.
