Gig review: Deany Darko – Voodoo on Easter Sunday

Walking through Belfast on Sunday was like walking through a ghost town.  The majority of shops, restaurants and bars were completely shut up. So it was a welcome sight to see as I eventually walked towards Voodoo on Fountain Street that there was a large crowd gathered outside and upon entering there was a large crowd inside as well.  The buzz was well and truly on for Deany Darko to take to the stage. You wouldn’t think you can fit 8 musicians onto the stage in Voodoo, but fit they did, and looked pretty comfortable doing it.

The band blasted through the majority of the Album tracks with aplomb and they sounded every bit as good as they do on the record.  The 3 piece brass section really lifts the music in a live setting and the appreciative crowd were lapping up every note.  In an earlier interview with Dean he had stated that he didn’t feel 100% confident as a vocalist yet, however to see and hear him on stage you would never have guessed.  A few songs not off the album were debuted as well “Pug life” and what was a sure fire live favourite to pogo along too “ I guess we’ve got a secret” with Dean himself stating that after practising them the past few days they were now some of his favourite tracks and he wondered himself why they weren’t on the album.   I tend to agree the new stuff sounded just as good as the album tracks, so perhaps there will be an EP coming to fill this gap.  The night went off superbly and it was obvious from Deans grinning through out and great banter between songs that the hard work had been worth it and that he was having as good a time as the audience were. The high light of the night for me was when Ed Zealous member Andrew Wilson stepped up to sing Tremendous Trevor, this was one of my stand out tracks of the album and this live version cemented that position even more.

It was a little sobering when the 10 O’clock bell tolled and a very abrupt end came to what was a fantastic night, the ridiculousness of turfing out a packed bar full of paying customer all too present and as baffling as the mess that is the Easter trading hours (#BlameNelson). But turfed out we were and the band wished us a good night, as people went off to buy the last of the Deany Darko merchandise and head home for some quite reflection on the baby Jesus. Or something.

Check out our review of the album here and get the album here