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A streak of sunshine. Delays live in Dublin - a review.

Some classics from Faded Seaside Glamour were then performed: On, one of this reviewer’s least favourite album tracks, captured the crowd’s passion and this hypnotic bass-heavy mantra seemed to engage the punters, no doubt the lyric and on and on and on because we like it will subliminally encourage new fans to purchase copies of the album for Christmas. The aforementioned fey ladies of the crowd were brought back to teenage squealing with the poppy, 1960s-reminiscent Hey Girl (thankfully they failed to dedicate this one to ‘the ladies’), and the melodic college rock of One Night Away and the sultry, jerky Stay Where You Are perpetuated the crowd’s passions. It was at this point that your reviewer had to go and make a holy show of herself, so enamoured was she with Delays’ clear appreciation of the Dublin audience. Another new song, Angel was introduced, with Greg Gilbert apologising for the “f***ing s**t title”, and yours truly, failing to realise the smallness of venue, closeness of self to the band, loudness of voice and capacity of wine that had been consumed, shouted out “Don’t apologise!”. Gilbert, clearly a man who knows how to take a compliment, asked me to repeat my comments for both the benefit of the audience and the band, which I promptly did, and was met with a wide smile and a warm dedication from the band. Well, give and ye shall receive, people! Far from being as twee as its title (and the concert merchandise: red and baby blue T-shirts were for sale bearing the silver legend “I like Delays”), it was a gentle ode ballad to someone clearly very special out there. The main performance was punctuated with their forthcoming single (out 22nd November) as Gilbert reminded us, Lost In A Melody which your reviewer had not heard until this event. Well, it is certainly an impressive and adventurous step for the quartet, heavily disco-influenced with techno elements, and had all members of the crowd, non-fey males and females alike, dancing themselves into a delightful tizzy. Indie discos across the British Isles will have a new anthem, methinks.

The band left the stage and returned approximately 5-seconds later for the obligatory encore, and broke into album opener Wanderlust, a beautiful track that to me, sums up Delays as a whole, musically adventurous, underpinned by divine steel drums, rocked by waves of classic indie rhythm guitar riffs, Gilbert’s innocent angelic falsetto vocals which succeed in being both raw and angry as well as choirboy wondrous. The entire tune delivers one from cold, wintry, damp, Northern Europe in November to the warm, beautiful waters of the Caribbean, some time outside of hurricane season. Finally, they closed off with their most rocking and catchy number, their first single Long Time Coming (a tune possessing a melody that this reviewer has noticed Kylie has pilfered for her new single I Believe In You, crowning a career of stealing other people’s ideas. Oh well.), again continuing the Delays trend of beautiful synthesised effects covered in rich Gibson guitar waves, with poppy, catchy and instantly accessible vocals. The band were clearly delighted with their evening’s work, as were the crowd, and stayed behind afterwards to shake hands with the punters, myself included. It became clear that all attendees who were previously unfamiliar with the band’s work had been converted and seduced.

Looks like the Delays have a very bright, summery future ahead of them, not only from their fan-winning prowess, but also their evident passion for their music (each member of the band was swaying and dancing passionately whilst performing each of their instruments, especially synthesiser king Aaron, who spread enthusiasm by interacting not only with each member of the band in turn, but also the audience). This reviewer can spot a faker a mile off, and unfortunately the current music scene is chock-full of them, but it’s nice to see a new band that, although they may owe a large debt to the past, certainly know how to evolve and deliver their talent in a unique and direct manner. Delayed musicianship? I think not.

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