Live Review: The Riptide Movement, The Healys

Three Irish brothers — Nigel, Allan and Gavin Healy — banded together to form The Healys. Their covers are a mix of nostalgic and modern tunes mainly consisting of classic Irish songs. The trio started out with some more current popular hits that most of the crowd sang to including Imagine Dragons' Radioactive, The Script's For The First Time and Time To Pretend by MGMT. Their vocals combined add a unique character to the set — subtle high melodies with a mix of some three-part harmonies. Describing switching between bass and acoustic guitar as 'playing musical chairs', the brothers show their talents both as multi-instrumentalists and comedians. They received a nice collection of whoops as they commended The Riptide Movement. The use of wah-wah and chorus stomp boxes created realistic renditions of great songs. Their cover of The Waterboys' The Whole Of The Moon was a throwback to the mid-'80s for a lot of the audience.

The ambient guitar quietly droned as the boys of The Riptide Movement prepped their instruments and amps. The four mates have a good relationship and it shows in their showmanship and stage communication. There were times where they'd happen to wing parts of their songs and they pulled through with no dramas every time. They are compelling in every aspect of their performance on stage and their album sounds just as captivating as their live sound.

They had a dude in a horse suit jumping around and before long their hit Animal had the whole floor dancing. The whole night was a party thanks to their singalong tunes including Friday To Sunday, You And I, How Can I Let You Go and All Works Out. One of the crowd favourites was Getting Through, at which point everyone was a little drunk and frontman Mal Tuohy had everyone chanting the chorus. The lead sections by guitarist JPR Dalton had the punters at the front losing their minds and some couples getting romantic. Bassist Ger McGarry had a deep set vocal which he used to hype up the show-goers. McGarry's harmonica solos were solid and proved him to be a very talented musician playing bass, mouth organ and singing. Drummer Gar Byrne's got a passionate soul for the rhythms he creates. He's very expressive and his enthusiasm motivates you to want to grab a drum kit and bash at it.