“Hello everyone” was Adam Moss’ greeting to the audience in this local venue, one that, given the talent of the brothers, should have been much larger. Moss then suggested that we all move forward so it wouldn’t look empty in any pictures from the night. They then proceeded to play a set of songs from all their releases plus one new song that, unusually, didn’t focus heavily on the current album COVER TO COVER. The only selections from that release were their arrangements for James Taylor’s You Can Close Your Eyes and The Beatles’ I Will. The latter, which was very well received, showed their dexterity as players and interpreters of the non-original material they play.
Adam, with twin brother David, then showed, not only their immaculate sibling harmonies but also an equal affinity as musicians working in tandem. Adam played violin (or fiddle if you prefer - depending on the song) and occasionally guitar while David switched between guitar and cello. The previous night they had gone to Gweedore and ended up playing a couple of songs in the famed Leo’s Tavern, as their Belfast gig had been cancelled. However, Adam noted, “we couldn’t understand a goddamn word” that was said to them.
They opened with On The Road Again and during the hour long set included songs such as Ocean’s Daughter - which they preceded by the thought that we had the technology to fix the carbon problem, if not the well. It also featured some fine jazzy overtones in the violin playing. Adam switched to guitar and David to cello for Banjo Song - one that didn’t have a banjo in sight! Tugboats was taken from their debut EP of the same title, as was Cairo, IL, a tale about a town from their home state that had once been a hub of water traffic, but had lost out to rail transport and was now full of fine out-of-time boarded up mansion houses. Worth a visit if you happen to have time to spare in the State, they reckoned.
For an introduction to the song Sorrow, Adam said it was interesting that when they first came here they never heard anybody say “Happy Days”, but they heard it a lot now. It’s something he might have exclaimed as two Guinness were brought onto the stage, instead ”sláinte” more than sufficed. The song Frankie was about their current homebase in Brooklyn which is being eroded by gentrification and development. This kind of inter-song banter was more notable than during their last gig in Dublin some four years ago, as was the overall appreciation and size of the audience. They are the kind of act that should be playing a venue like the National Concert Hall, and possibly would be, with some greater exposure.
They finished the evening with a song that they have played at practically every gig since they started performing together, after separately pursuing different musical directions. That song, Angel Island, written by Peter Rowan, was one that showed that while we should learn from the past, we never seem to. It, like all of the previous material, was rendered with an empathy and understated passion that is the trademark of the Brother Brothers’ musical journey and talent. May they return soon.
The evening was opened by local act, Mark Austin, playing some acid-folk which, while he held the audience’s attention, was so drenched in reverb and phasing that it tended to render one song indistinguishable from the next. A little thought on how the songs would best be received would give him a better chance in the long run.
Review by Stephen Rapid and photographs by Kaethe Burt O’Dea