Ryan Sheridan / Róisín O
The sold out Live Music Hall in Cologne quickly filled as soon as the gates were opened – a laid back mood everywhere you looked, all age groups were present, same goes for new and hardcore fans that had travelled to many shows during Ryan Sheridan´s first headliner tour.
The evening started with thesupport band Róisín O , also Irish and consisting of three female musicians who presented a nice mix of music to the audience and did quite well. Nevertheless it often seemed as if the audience was not sure what to think about the performance – there was only little movement on stage, the whole show seemed to be rather static, even though music and vocals were done really well. An enthusiastic mood was simply not created, maybe it was because the band´s music is rather suitable for a relaxed campfire evening than performing in front of 1400 people who were all waiting for an electric Ryan Sheridan.
It´s nothing new that change over breaks are not the fans´ favourite time of a concert, but this time it seemed to be taking forever. But the waiting was worth it, because Ryan Sheridan and his band really created a great atmosphere. The performance was full of energy and sparks flew to the audience, which was easy to spot in the first rows.
Songs like „Stand Up Tall“, „The Dreamer“ or the recent album´s title track „The Day You Live Forever“ made the audience sing and clap along – and of course also the cover version of „Seven Nation Army“ (originally by The White Stripes) was not missing from the setlist, because this song already showed its effect during the tour with Rea Garvey. It´s been a nice mood, there´s always been enough space to be dancing and to fully enjoy the music – the audience was celebrating and had fun, but many hardly knew the songs, so that that they were far away from singing along. Next to songs from the recent album, they also presented two new ones to the audience, called “Home” and “Break From These Chains”; both were well received and earned a lot of cheering!
One clearly has to highlight „Jigsaw“, because this song was home to a really interesting battle: singer Ryan Sheridan and his acoustic guitar against drummer Jimmy Rainsford on his cajón. It´s hard to tell who was the one to be leading, because the whole cooperation of those two was not only great to listen to but also fascinating to watch – I was able to spot quite a few fans whose jaw had dropped when they saw what Jimmy was doing with his cajón. And what they created there was a wonderful outcome of a battle!
Another highlight was the performance of slower songs such as „Machine“ but also „All and more“. The latter mentioned one was a song during which the audience played a major role when it comes to singing – at a certain point, Ryan Sheridan turned away the microphone stand, unplugged his acoustic guitar and started singing at the edge of the stage – the audience joined in and was singing on its own in the end. An overall goose bump feeling is something that Ryan Sheridan had created here.
Conclusion:
After two encores the concert then found its end, the audience and the band equally soaked in sweat – but you were able to see sparkling eyes and happy faces all around. This is why I can say that it had been a totally great concert of Ryan Sheridan!