Kim Deal – Vicar Street – Live Review – 16/06/25
by Killian Laher

Vicar Street was pretty packed for the visit of Kim Deal and band.  Not a bad turnout for a Monday night!  First up was Dublin band Madra Salach, a multi-piece folk ensemble that played Lankum-style folk.  Fronted by Lead singer Paul Banks, who wore a headscarf throughout the set, they played a dark, droning version of Spancil Hill featuring one of the band on tin whistle (!) and The Pogues’ The Old Main Drag.  They also played some rousing originals, I Was Just A Boy Then and The Man Who Seeks Pleasure, at times a little overwrought, but such is the way with this kind of music.

Kim Deal has been touring with a multi-piece band, many of whom played on last year’s solo album, Nobody Loves You More.  As well as your standard guitar, bass and drums, we had violin, cello, backing singers and a small brass section with ten musicians on stage.  The first part of the show was a run-through of the aforementioned album, which she is clearly very proud of, and for the most part, they delivered it faithfully, with Deal’s voice cracking a little on Are You Mine.  The rocky moments, Disobedience and A Good Time Pushed fared best, with welcome heavy riffs on Come Running.

After a brief rendition of Beautiful Moon, the band launched into Safari, which ignited the evening, and they played plenty of Breeders’ songs. Invisible Man featured some savage guitar work from both Kim Deal on rhythm and Rob Bochnik on lead.  There was a bizarre moment during Biker Gone when a message popped up on the stage backdrop – “Do you wish to cancel out of all applications?”  Thankfully, somebody clicked cancel, to loud cheers from the crowd.

Songs like No Aloha and the Pixies’ Gigantic still have the capacity to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck more than 30 years on.  There was full-on screaming at the singer from the adoring audience, along with cries of “I love you”.  As if the question needed to be asked, they encored with Do You Love Me Now? before finishing with Cannonball.  Although it wasn’t quite The Breeders, it was the next best thing, and Kim Deal is still cooler than she has any right to be at this stage in her career.