A childhood dream of mine was finally realised today, the band that got me into music, the band of the first album I ever bought on release, the first band I really got into, that made me love music, I finally got to see live.
Stereophonics are an underrated powerhouse of late 90s and early 00s rock. One of the great Welsh musical acts up there with the like of Tom Jones.
I feel as though this review may come off biased, which is a fair assessment considering I absolutely am biased.
Kelly Jones has one of the best voices in music going, a proper raspy, whiskey voice, very reminiscent of Rod Stewart, with who they have a song, “Handbags and Gladrags”, which they treated us to a rare performance of at the concert.
I sang, I laughed, I loved and I left, in that order. Sitting here on the bus back down to portloaise I can feel the itch in my throat that will almost certainly develop into a lost voice tomorrow morning. Worth it.
The entire band are on the top of their game like always, opening with “Vegas Two Times”, a great hard rocker song to get the crowd going, with fan favourite sprinkled throughout an amazing set, songs like “Local Boy in the Photograph” and “Just Looking” had the crowd roaring.
One of my personal favourite songs of theirs “C’est La Vie” left my throat in absolute pieces.
Finishing with the straight down to earth hard rocker song “The Bartender and the Thief” straight into their biggest hit “Dakota”, it was a night to, and that I will, remember.
Stage Setup: 8/10, a very standard stage set up, but the use of the screens both beside and behind the stage, with some amazing visual effects overlayed into it brought quite a lot to the spectacle.
Band performance: 10/10, not a slip from these lads tonight, Kelly’s voice sounds the same as it did when they dropped their debut album in 97’
Support: 7/10, support was given by Davey MacManus first, a local lad from Dundrum who used to be in the music scene with Stereophonics, certainly a unique talent, with songs such as “It’s Like Walking Down the Stairs in the Dark and Missing a Step” bringing a strange but endearing element to the gig, Next up was James Bay, a big artist in his own right, with hits like “Let it Go” and “Hold Back the River”, a very talented singer and an exceptional guitarist
Merchandise: 7/10, very standard merch selection, including tour hoodies, t-shirts and even an event specific t-shirt for that concert only, along with those were hats and even pairs of socks
Crowd: 9/10, a great crowd that was really into the music, a crowd that welcoming I made great friends with the couple beside me, everyone was warm and everyone was roaring along to any and every word they knew
Overall: 9/10, a concert a long time coming for me, and it was well worth the wait, an amazing band, who put on an amazing show, a show so good I almost forget about the torrential hailstorm that happened while we waited for them to emerge onto the stage
Next up: Nine Inch Nails 15/6/25
Jays Concert Blog 