Although a Galway native, Laura Sheeran has descended from her abode in Dublin to return to her home town for the launch of her new album launch “Lust of Pig and Fresh Blood”. To celebrate the launch, copies of her new CD were given to people who showed up early at the door, which was very generous of her and an excellent way of distributing music during these times when CDs are overlooked in favour of downloading (legal or otherwise). I wound up giving my copy to a friend, as I had bought my copy on vinyl only the day before.

Before Ms. Sheeran came on, first up was local lad Declan Q. Kelly. He is, among other things, a composer and performed for us some of his own flavour ambient post- rock, similar to the mindset of God Is an Astronaut. Declan did have a harsher sound then God is An Astronaut and did a great job warming up the crowd in anticipation. The only thing I’ll say about him is that he needs to work on his showmanship. He seemed entirely focused on his instruments and not enough reaching out to the crowd trying to connect with them. Declan, if you’re going to go places gigging, you’ve got to work on your gig performance and spend less time staring at your own feet. Unless, that is, you want to be labelled as a shoegaze artist.

Once Declan was finished up, there was a break for people to relax and for Laura’s band to set up. Among them, I was surprised to find, was Tony Higgins of Junior 85, who was performing at Ctrl-Alt-Delete only a few days before. And then I noticed that there were more then a few faces that were at Ctrl-Alt-Delete who were also here for Laura Sheeran. Small world.

Overall, the crowd filled up the room nicely, but was far from full. This is probably due to the fact that the gig was on Sunday, a night that most people would be getting ready for work instead of going out and they’d all have gone out the previous Friday or Saturday. Did see a lot of familiar people, a number of them seemed to know Laura as well.

And then Laura came on. After introducing herself, she wasted no time in launching into the songs from her new album. And what songs they were!! If Laura ever had problems describing her music with a genre then let me say that ethereal is one that fits the bill 100%. Her music was morbid, melancholic, and spoke of a certain tiredness and fatigue, not from dealing with the struggles of life but from work and honest labour that sleep would cure. There were glimpses of Jarboe, Love Is Colder than Death, late Siouxsie Sioux and even some Industrial spirit in her sounds. These were created using a number of different instruments, including guitars, violin, harp, drums, keyboard, cello and even a violin bow on a saw!

In contrast to her music, Laura was a completely different person when talking to the crowd. She was friendly albeit shy and was perfectly happy to smile and talk with the crowd. She really threw herself at the performance aspect of the gig as well. While she couldn’t move about much on stage, hemmed in as she was by her band and an assortment of synths and tables around her, she did move her arms about as if performing some sort of mystic ritual. She was a consummate performer who did not mess about and got straight down to business.

The only fly in the ointment was the lack of goths in the crowd, which is a real shame as Laura’s music is perfect listening for the more melancholy music lover. Perhaps if Laura were to commit career suicide and shoot for the Goth label as a musician, then the locals might realise there’s a goth event marketed towards them and actually go, but even then only a few would raise their heads above the trenches to take a peak. Organising the local black clad individuals is like herding pretentious cats: Not worth your while in the slightest.

Once Laura finished up, it was time to head home. The bar wasn’t opening late, but a lot of us were tired and weary after the gig and the weekend. But it was a magical night and a wonderful performance. Can’t wait for the next time she plays Galway.