Into The West: So Cow at the Róisín Dubh

Being born and bred in suburban Dublin, almost nothing imaginable has sufficient allure to draw me from the commuter convenience of this city to the wilds of Anywhere Else In Ireland. But the return of ex-pat indiegarten pioneer So Cow from Seoul to his true home in Galway was enough to inspire the trip. I got the phone call from Hi Fi Popcorn, stuffed my last fifty euro into my pocket and made straight for Busáras. Imagine Joy Division in the Hacienda. The Beatles in the Cavern Club. Talking Heads in CBGBs. Now add one to the list. So Cow in Róisín Dubh. 2007′s real best Irish album, “These Truly Are End Times” has been on constant rotation on my mp3 player (if there is rotation involved somewhere within mp3 players) for the past year, and having seen a quite endearing but slightly half-baked performance in Anseo a few months ago, Galway called out to me. So, with amateur digital camera in hand, I went.

After enduring a bus trip that seemed about a week long, and sampling the local cuisine in Supermacs, my associates and I managed to locate the world famous Róisín Dubh. We located ourselves directly beside the stage for the opening set of Big Monster Love, who played to an empty Whelans several hours before Apples In Stereo a few months ago. Big Monster Love is actually from Dublin, and whether by merit or by the nostalgia for our fair city that being away for half a day inspired, his straightforward lyrics about motorway traffic and the trials of love seemed to really speak. It’s difficult to get lo-er fi than a guitar or a Casio keyboard (not both), and singing that is so unpretentious it sometimes just sounds like speaking in a Dublin accent. Whether or not lo-fi has become a compliment, his jams have no frills and no unnecessary parts and they let him go about the business of being a very Dublin poet. The furthest into layering it gets is a backing track on the Casio on the set-closer, Modem Age Dreams. He seems like an honest guy, and his lyrics speak truth, so Big Monster Love gets a solid backing from this musical traveller.

Then So Cow. One relatively undaunting man, his guitar and his mp3 players versus a well-populated bar with free entry on a Thursday night. No problem whatsoever. Everything fast off These Truly Are End Times was played. Some excellent new songs too. Brian rocked out forwards.

And Brian rocked out backwards

And Brian rocked out so hard, his glasses fell off.

And he won the day. For those of you who aren’t familiar with his music, it’s hard to describe. It jumps around. Nerdish guitar rock? Guitarish nerd indie? It switches from song to song. Casablanca starts off busy and ends up cathartic, getting in a very catchy chorus in between before wrapping up before 2.30 is hit. Ping Pong Rock is a rather melancholy love song soaked in reverb. Only it’s not actually a love song, so much as it’s a history of love songs from The Beatles onwards. Curious business. Moon Geun Young is a well-measured noisy pop-rock song about breaking up with someone in Korea under a poster of a teenage celebrity wearing a multicoloured crash helmet and holding a Samsung phone. Something we can all relate to, I think. It’s Over isn’t fast or noisy, but it’s possibly the best So Cow. It’s an acoustic walk through a break up with layered (and slightly out of tune) guitar and harmonising (and slightly out of tune) vocals. All the acrimony of that shittest and slowest of time periods, the post-break-up awkwardness, is evoked. “This is our last song to be sung/Feel free to tell your friends I’m well hung”. Beautiful.

Songs newer than End Times hold up just as well if not better. The only possible complaint one could have (and by one, I obviously mean me after several pints of “Hooker”) was that the plaintive calls from the audience (again, from me) for his cover of The Perfect Me by Deerhoof which showed up on their website was ignored. It didn’t matter. Absolutely worth leaving Our Nation’s Capital for. Special mention too to Gugai, the resident DJ in Roisin Dubh for playing better music than anywhere else I’ve been, including fulfilling our requests for Animal Collective and Vampire Weekend. Dancing around in circles to Peacebone on an empty dancefloor is a memory I’ll cherish for years to come. The highlight though? Last song of So Cow’s regular set: “This is a Paddy Casey cover, it’s called Living It Up”. It wasn’t a Paddy Casey cover, and it wasn’t called Living It Up. It was The League Of Impressionable Teens. If you can have a hit single when you only print 500 copies of your album and you do it in Korea, that would be it. Wondrous stuff. MySpace here.