Headlining the exclusive Irish launch of the brand new Coca-Cola and iTunes music partnership, the Rapture with support from Mullingar’s the Blizzards played to an enthralled crowd at the Village. Coca-Cola and iTunes have teamed up to create www.coke.com/music, a new platform for unsigned musicians to get heard. On Thursday the 30th of November, a 300 strong guest list of adoring fans, media gurus, music industry’s elite and one lucky Trinity News writer witnessed an intimate performance of the Raptures newest material. Support from Ireland’s newest pop punk sensation the Blizzard was well received by the crowd but weak at the best of times as they played upbeat songs very reminiscent of the Futureheads, Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park. Apart from questioning their originality, the Blizzards are good at what they do, as a band they’re pretty tight and they make nice use of vocal harmonies which adequately cover up lead singer Niall Breslin’s limited range. I heard one onlooker coin the phrase Jock Rock, or Rock by Jocks in reference to Breslins rugby player appearance.

By the time the Rapture were ready to come on everyone was totally psyched and ready to dance their pants off. Walking onto the stage in the Village, the band members with their unkempt hairstyles, retro clothes and vivacious attitudes looked as calm and collected as could be. These guys are Pros, having toured with the likes of Mogwai, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, the Von Bondies and the Cure in the past and more recently supporting the Killers on their European tour.

After an extensive wait following the release of their debut album Echoes in 2003, fans were eager to hear the Rapture perform their new material. Their second full length album Pieces of the People we love was released on Universal Motown Records in September 2006. With production from Paul Epworth, Ewan Pearson and DJ Dangermouse this is an album that promises a lot. And tonight fans were eager to get a first listen live.

They kicked the gig off with heaven the first track off echoes, spurring the crowd into one big heaving mass of dance. Despite this being a corporate gig, most real fans were delighted to be in such an intimate venue to hear the Raptures newest material and they weren’t disappointed. Tracks like ‘Get myself into it’, ‘Pieces of the people we love’, ‘Whoo! Alright – Yeah…Uh Huh’ and ‘Don gon do it’ blew the crowd away, just looking around it was clear that everyone was really getting into it. Funky bass lines, synths, sax and the rhythmic sounds of the cowbell blend perfectly together in unison creating a polyphonic masterpiece and an overall brilliant live performance. The Rapture are a band that you just can’t help dancing to! The interaction between bassist Matt Safer and front man guitarist/vocalist Luke Jenner is amazing, the way they swap roles as lead vocalist on different songs really adds a lot to the dynamics of the music and their live show.

The distinctive and unrivalled sound of the Rapture broke onto the music scene with full force following the release of their track House of Jealous Lovers. Since then acts like CSS, the Klaxons, the sunshine underground and new young pony club have all broken onto the music scene mixing up Indie, dance, funk and punk. Recently NME have even began an Indie rave tour which will hit Dublin in February. Although The Rapture are frequently referred to as Dance-punk, this is a genre that band member Mattie Safer rejects and is quoted to claim that “dance punk is dead”. Whatever genre or subgenre critics try to lump the Rapture into, they still remain a funk revolution of modern times. The Rapture return to Dublin to play at Tripod on Harcourt street on the 3rd of March.

Originally published in Trinity News.

Brendan McGuirk is the editor of Analogue, and former Chair of Trinity FM.
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