Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert – Grand Social – Live Review – 24/07/18

By No More Workhorse on July 25, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )

Aidan Moffat & RM Hubbert – Grand Social, Dublin – Live Review – 24/07/18 by Killian Laher

Support was provided by Siobhan Wilson who played selections from last year’s There Are No Saints album. Accompanying herself on guitar and keyboard on songs like Make You Mine, her sweet songcraft drifted by without making a major impression. Perhaps it was the venue, she had requested the air conditioning to be turned off due to a buzzing noise!

After her set it wasn’t long before she was back on stage with the main act, joining Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert on cello and keyboard, along with a drummer to make up a four-piece band. Moffat and Hubby owned the stage right from the start. Sticking mostly to selections from their recent album Here Lies The Body, Moffat, despite not having what you might classify as a conventional singing voice, dominated, his rich Scottish tones handled songs like Cockcrow and Mz Locum with authority. Equally impressive was the guitar work of RM Hubbert, intricate without being showy or flashy, he really is one of the finer guitarists out there. Almost as entertaining was the banter between songs, both men playing off each other and the occasional heckler as they covered Brexit, Trump, the recent 8th amendment referendum to name but a few topics. Hilariously, Hubby introduced She Runs as one for the jogging playlists as later Moffat donned glasses to read his lyrics on the likes of Zoltar Speaks (a tale about an arcade in Blackpool). The set seemed to get stronger as it went on, culminating in the subtle tones of Quantum Love Theory and Fringe, two slow but highly musical songs from the recent album.

Rather than leave the stage at the end of the set, the band simply turned their back on the audience briefly before playing a short encore: an unexpected cover version of Yazoo’s Only You, and probably the finest song the two have written together, Car Song, played as a duo, providing an aspirational and blissful end to the night. A visit by two of Scotland’s more brooding musicians, turned out to be a highly entertaining night of great music and what can only be described as… fun!