Here's an account I posted on a Rads forum -
http://peteholidai.proboards28.com/inde ... 64&start=0
Epic gig. Phil doing his best Jasper Carrott look , cool brown suede jacklet with multitudinous tassles , roaring out the vocals , ripping out the guitar cords , slaying all around . Steve did his best Robin Gibb impersonation, sleeveless newspaper print t-shirt , banging away at the keyboards. Pete was Ziggy Stardust , a golden shirt and leather trousers combination that had to be seen to be believed. Cait was menacing , all dressed in black and taking no prisoners as she spanked out a rock solid bass line. Johnny bashed the nuts out of his drums - but in a determined , controlled way.
With a delightfully relavant intro of ' Young people of Ireland I love you' ( as said by the late Pope in Galway back in 1979 , if you really need an explanation) the Rads came on stage at about 9.45 , the stage front area being reasonably full . The set consisted mostly of songs from the two albums . Great as they were , what was even better was the two news songs performed.
'She says I'm a loser' featured an absolutely stunning harmony vocal effect by Pete , Cait and Phil. Combined with some delightfully intricate bass playing by Cait this was tantalising indicator of , what Phil mentioned , the third album they hope to record later this year.
' The Girl With A Gun' was just as good , a real 'Kill Bill' of a song , as my slightly drunk friend kept calling it. More harmony vocals, more bass - Cait is clearly well settled in to the Rads line-up.
There seemed to be a real confidence about the songs , representing a group with a focused vision. Faithful as most of the versions of the songs from the albums were , I got the impression that the musicians were impatient to move on to articulating what they feel now.
'Faithful Departed' was given a great deconstruction job, loads of shimmery guitar effects echoing all over the place , spot-on audience inclusion ploy by Phil getting all of us ( well , some of us..) to sing the 'Whiskey In The Jar' line.
The encore was wig out stuff. Cait belted out ' Haunted', the song she first did with Shane MacGowan on the 'Sid ' n Nancy 'soundtrack. Steve absolutely shreiked the Flaming Groovies 'Teenage Head'. That kind of stuff.
I stumbled out on to scummy Wexford St. , ears dulled by the deafening noise , happy . Only for the fact that I have a six o'clock start tomorrow I might still be there ...
Oh, and by the way , Phil confirmed that the Rads will be supporting U2 on the June 25th Croke Park gig......yippee!!!