Traffic chaos and a gridlocked city didn’t deter fans of the Shires getting to Belfast’s SSE Arena in time for their opening slot ahead of The Corrs.
The band took to the stage to an almost full venue and the audience loved them. Too often we’ve gone to gigs only witness the opening acts having to play punters in from the bar, or just get ignored and talked over. The Shires had no such trouble tonight.
As soon as they hit the stage they owned it.
A veritable tour de force of radio friendly hits followed. ‘Tonight’, ‘Brave’, ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ and fittingly for some ‘Friday Night’ – check out the lyrics.
It’s hard not to enjoy the band’s foot stomping tunes belted out in glorious harmony by Chrissie Rhodes and Ben Barnes. Their infectious brand of alt-country/folk-pop is edgy enough to attract the attention of the Americana audience and at the same time cross genres to appeal to the Garth Brooks fans.
Not afraid to tackle the odd country classic they treat us to great rendition of the Dolly Parton and Kenny Roger classic ‘Islands In The Stream’ in which Chrissie encourages everyone to light their mobile phones and hold them aloft during the song. This had the potential to be cheesy, but it worked and for a few moments the arena looked like a multi-tiered birthday cake. We feel our age during this as we think back to the days before smoking bans when lighters were held aloft at gigs.
All too soon they leave the stage, but for the 30 minutes they were up there they worked the butt of the arena. It’s no surprise that in less than two years since they played McHugh’s basement they’ve made the short, but massive career enhancing journey across the river to play in the SSE Arena. These guys are on the up and we look forward to seeing them return on their own headline show soon.