Live Review: The Bad Shepherds, Shifting Sands

Tonight kicks off with a set by a three-piece incarnation of local noir exponents Shifting Sands, and if there's a more disconcerting sight than SixFtHick co-frontman Geoff Corbett – who owns the male voice from this band – playing a gig sitting down then we'd like to know about it. Joined by Dylan McCormack on acoustic guitar and Danielle Golding on organ (who also entwines nice vocals throughout), they offer a slew of sad songs about heartbreak, loneliness and despair – inhabiting Cohen and Waits territory (Boyfriend), until they veer off on a Lanegan tangent (Onions & Violins) and even into the realms of Richman (The Other Girls) before ending with a strong track which may or may not be titled Unrelenting Surf. Dark but not devastating, and rather compelling throughout.

The solid crowd seems more curious than excited until The Bad Shepherds actually take the stage: veteran comic-turned-frontman Ade Edmondson tips his hat to his past before they begin by exclaiming, “I'm not just Hitler or Vyv!”, but as soon as Troy Donockley's uilleann pipes begin their otherworldly refrain and Edmondson kicks in on mandolin and is joined by fiddler Andy Dinan – quickly showing why he's twice won the all-Ireland Fiddle Championship – on a scintillating folk rendition of Sex Pistols' Anarchy In The UK, any reservations are quickly shelved. The song is completely transformed and works superbly in this authentic folk format, as does the more straightforward rendition of The Clash's take on I Fought The Law which soon follows. The Bad Shepherds' conceit of covering punk and new wave songs in the Celtic tradition transcends mere gimmickry and, in the hands of such excellent musicians, showcases these brilliant songs in an entirely new light. Wreckless Eric's (I'd Go The) Whole Wide World segues into The Stranglers' No More Heroes, before a stripped-back take on The Jam's brilliant Down In The Tube Station At Midnight lays bare the song's latent power and beauty, both musically and lyrically. Indeed, many of these covers emphasise the lyrics more than the original takes ever did, in the process underlining some major tenets that are often overlooked amidst the youthful, frenetic delivery of yore. It's a fascinating exercise, delivered with lashes of good-natured humour that never threatens to overshadow the music, and they run through a slew of great songs by The Specials (Friday Night, Saturday Morning), Kraftwerk (The Model), Talking Heads (Road To Nowhere and Once In A Lifetime), PiL (Rise), Ian Dury & The Blockheads (What A Waste), Madness (Our House) and XTC (Making Plans For Nigel), as well as revisiting The Jam (Going Underground) and finishing with an encore take on The Clash's epic White Riot. A weird amalgam of talent, inspiration and all manner of nostalgia – all in all a resounding success.