It's The Magical Mystical Kind

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes 

Dublin, Olympia Theatre. Sunday 9th February

Wow. What a blur. What a magical evening. 

Watching the warmup, I'll be honest, I wasn't too sure. It was made up of a guy called Harper Simon with some friends. There was a cello, a violin, a guitar, a clarinet and a French horn (I think). They played well enough, but it was a bit wishy washy and drowned out in the bustling chit-chatting crowd. It got a bit more exciting when a few of The Magnetic Zeroes joined them on stage, but it was all a bit too samey for me. 

And then the calm before the storm... It seemed like an eternity between the warm up and the main show, with all the excitement I had brewing in my stomach. In the boxes on the right of the stage I swear to god I even saw a lady on the balcony knitting whilst she waited.

I tried to get a photo of the knitting lady but you can't see the needles... and the photo quality is shocking. Sorry internet.

Alex from ESATMZ is famous for saying they never have a set list, and true to his word he asked the audience what they wanted, and played whatever he heard the punters shout. They obviously did the big ones like 40 Day Dream (now featured on a snazzy car advert, you'll probably know it even if you think you don't) and Home, but they also did quite a few I'd not heard. This was largely due to the fact that I've only fully listened to their debut album  Up From Below, and need to catch up on what they've done more recently. But it was all wonderful. 

Jade was beautiful, she wore a mid length dress with beautiful detail, it looked a mauve colour under the lighting but I can't be sure. She smiled like a child the whole night, so pure, it was mesmirising. Alex commandeered the stage, a true frontman for the band. And I got to know a few more of the ten strong band, though names escape me. There was a percussionist/other vocalist who was amazing. He took the centre stage for a song called Motion Animal, and it was absolutely electric. Wikipedia (reliable source) tells me his name is Christopher 'Crash' Richard. He was so talented, as were the whole band in their own individual right, but I guess because Alex and Jade speak to each other in Home people tend to know them the most. 

Speaking of, when they got to the instrumental bit in Home where on the recorded track Jade and Alexander have a conversation about the time Jade fell out a window. I was curious as to how they'd play this... And they didn't disappoint. They asked one another if either had a story, and then Jade told the story of the first time they'd visited Dublin, then they asked the audience if anyone had any stories. Obviously they were restricted to the first few rows, but they handed the mic to one lady who said, "Joe if you're here tonight, I am so sorry. I love you and I am so so sorry." It wasn't so much a story as a public apology, but it was sweet and everyone was so caught up in the moment. We didn't find out if their story had a happy ending, but it was still sweet. I wonder what she did in the first place...

And hallelujah they didn't do an encore. And I didn't want one. Me and Toby are forever going to gigs and saying that we wish they'd just stay on rather than doing the whole, 'We're going, oh no we're not!' pantomime-esque camaraderie, and finally a musician with some sense! I had a listen to the Jo Wiley ESATMZ show last night, and Alexander said they didn't do them because that way you get to play for longer, and I suppose it's probably easier than getting 10 band members on and off stage then back on for another 10 minutes. I was very grateful for this development.

Would I see them again? Yes, in a heartbeat. I feel like I fell in love with each and every one of them, along with everyone in the crowd whilst I was in that room. In a word: magical.