Rebellious folk music doesn’t often walk hand in hand with the middle class and yet, in the rather lovely surrounds of Ballyholme Yacht Club, we’ve found ourselves sipping a beer and discussing rugby league with Lyttleton, New Zealanders The Eastern. Judge not though lest ye be judged for there is nothing pretentious or middle class about this show. Part of Open House Festival, manned by volunteers, the stage playing host to one of the world’s most relentless touring bands and the music is raw, authentic and anthemic. You could easily be in a docker’s bar or a working man’s club lost in the steady chug of old union steam ships and that steady-as-she-goes Tennessee Three guitar strum.
There’s plenty of history between the great nations and frontman Adam McGrath’s penchant for a good folk ballad, a spot of rugby and the wearing of a damn fine ginger beard hints at heritage running much deeper than the tales of ex-girlfriends from Ballymena and hanging out in the Southern Alps with big Paddy Moran. Scrum down. New Zealand ball.
With the stage bathed in a hellish red light as the sun dips below the Bangor horizon, the four piece treat the sell-out crowd to a selection of songs from the double album ‘Hope and Wire’ written and recorded in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake. There’s a certain Johnny Cash influence, with Jon on upright bass and Jessie on banjo laying down a sure foundation for McGrath’s stories of social conscience like ‘Hope and Wire’ and ‘State Houses By The Sea’. There are subtle nods to the punkier side of things too with Adam telling us he keeps a little bit of a Joe Strummer shirt inside his guitar. When Alice unleashes that fiddle though it’s all out country. There’s a devil down in Georgia looking thoroughly defeated.
The Eastern are a band that share their highs and lows, from rowdy foot stompin’ performances and tours with Steve Earle to intimate sit-down folk club yacht club shows, from the rabble-rousin’ drinking and gambling songs to more tender moments like when McGrath hands off to Jessie Shanks for a stunning ‘Old Time Feeling’. Family dedications follow as the supermoon wanes over Ballyholme Bay and Mrs. McGrath receives a cameraphone shot singalong of ‘Blue Moon’ before the band take to the floor and bring it on home with a stunning Sam Cooke cover.
Boats and trains, sound old men with sage advice, whiskey, beer and more whiskey round off a delightful evening of story and song. In rugby terms, the New Zealanders have broken through the Irish line and well, we’ve been converted.