Adrian Crowley – Dublin Unitarian Church – Live Review
by Killian Laher

Adrian Crowley at the Dublin Unitarian Church on Thursday 21st of December, 2023

One of Irish music’s great eccentrics, Adrian Crowley, played a pre-Christmas show in the Unitarian Church in Dublin.  Support was provided by Aoife DeMille. Joined by Cormac Fitzpatrick on acoustic guitar, she opened with the recent single Morning Fires, a slow strum reminiscent of Damien Rice.  Playing languid, unhurried yet pretty songs, the song She evoked early Joni Mitchell.  DeMille finished with a long untitled song, which built slowly.  There’s an innocence about her, which again nods to early Joni Mitchell.

Adrian Crowley appeared next, armed with a mellotron and guitar.  The first part of the set was composed of new, unreleased songs.  Gorgeous songs that go nowhere in particular, slowly.  Which, of course, is great.  The Cohen-esque Genevieve of the Mountain stood out, Crowley coaxing a symphony of strange noises from the mellotron while playing exquisite guitar lines.  One droney number was almost in the mould of the Velvet Underground while Crowley doomily intoned with a voice which bore all the hallmarks of having been dredged from the bottom of the sea.

After a time Crowley shifted into wonky bossa nova mode before being joined by Brigid Mae Power.  They duetted on the witty Halfway to Andalucia and a slightly ropey version of Everybody’s Talking which narrowly avoided cheesiness.  Unhappy Seamstress was performed with a flourish before he ended the set with one more bossa nova number.

Crowley returned for an encore consisting of a long drawn out rendition of Northbound Stowaway over a ringing guitar, and Bread and Wine on mellotron.  The dominance of new songs in Adrian Crowley’s set shows how excited he is by his new material.  It’s great to see an artist, more than 20 years in really growing into himself and his songs.  Long may he run.