Gig Review; Featuring X

Whelans (Upstairs) 28/05/2015

Although rock music in it's purest form has existed as many and more than 60 years, and the fact that countless rock bands have existed, formed, bloomed, flourished, dissolved, faded, reformed, rebooted etc. etc. on an endless loop; it still remains my opinion that even consisting of all the right nuts and bolts in all the appropriate places, it's very difficult to do right.
Featuring X are one of those bands that do it very right.
Realistically speaking, with an undisputable back bone of rock in it's purest and most tonically pleasant form, Featuring X is one of those fresh new, swiftly and steadily progressing acts that like all great laser weapons from 1950s sci fi movies comes with 2 settings: Stun, and Kill.
The most amazing point to address being the fact that they freely transition between both stunning the audience and absolutely killing it.

Ok, i'm going to let that pun burn itself to redemption in purgatory and get on to the actual important bit.

It's worth noting people of the internet, that I know lead guitarist Dara Farrelly personally; facebook tells me we've been friends since june 2011 so i'd hazard a guess this was around the time we became aware of eachothers existence. From then to now it's been eventful to say the least, and knowing someone like Dara Farrelly is great for any musician mostly because they unintentionally remind you that you actually are one of those musiciany people and should probably music soon; mostly in moments of artists block or lack of motivation.
Seeing Featuring X on a Guinness Amplify poster sometime last year when casually waiting on a bus was one of those times.
Seeing Featuring X play live in HMV Grafton street was another one of those times.
Hearing their EP was one of those times (and is whenever I listen to it).
As was seeing them live last night when they headlined Whelans.

yes, Whelans.

Me right now.

This is actually the first gig i've been to in whelans and will not be the last. the acoustics were bloody brilliant and really allowed a lot of room for a fantastic band like Featuring X to blossom. Right from the get-go they hit hard and reminded all mere mortals in their presence why theyre headlining and not supporting someone else's Whelan's gig; setting the ball rolling with a heavy bass driven sound that shows no fear of letting open bass notes ring loud and prominent.
Which by the way, since bass players are often horrendously underrated in bands, can we just take a moment to appreciate how Featuring X does this bit very right and puts Sarah McLaughlin, an immensely competent musician on bass?

Dat Bass tho, Lads

Not the Sarah McLaughlin that sings Jessie's backstory in Toy Story 2 though. Sorry if this fact disappointed you in any way.

The Whelans version of Featuring X does sound remarkably more polished than the version that played HMV almost a year ago, it shows a natural progression of a band and one of the most interesting things to note is how The Boat has changed from the time of recording their debut EP and now. The intro has changed. It begins with palm muted picking guitar that given the songs title really connects to the sound of morse code. This really suprised me, and I dont know if Featuring X realise it or not but grounding a theme of a song with a motif reminiscent of something else relating to that same theme is what i'd really consider class A musicianship, heavyweight musicianship; The platinum membership of rock music that people love acts like the Beatles for.
That, I loved most of all.

The Boat - Featuring X


Jekyll & Hyde is a personal favourite. Not only because I love that book more than life itself but also because it's just an amazing song. The intro is striking and full with a snarly guitar riff that just aint afraid to swagger. The rhythm guitar parts of Eleanor Rogers are both sharp and guick to remind me why I like Hollow body guitars so much. And there's no chorus, such to speak at least; The chorus part is filled by a recurring instrumental break, which is lead into by a pre-chorus. A shameless breaking the unwritten rules of pop music that often only Mark Ronson is brave enough to do.
Brownie points for that. (Brownie not included)
It's, odd for one to admit, a song that I wish I wrote and recorded myself, perhaps somewhere in the multiverse there exists a reality wherein I do not suffer writers block all the fridging time and wrote this song and am very content with doing so.
But, I didnt write it and Featuring X did.
I am very content with them doing so also.

Jekyll & Hyde - Featuring X

They're quite simply put; one of those bands that you should know and are more than worth the growing recognition they are recieving. If you havent done so already, and have read this far, it'd be sinful to not check out their EP and give their Facebook page a like and show your support.

And don't stop at that.
College is over for the summer which means Niamh Sharkey, Jenny McKeown, Eleanor Rogers, Sarah McLaughlin and Dara Farrelly are in touring season. Keep your ear to the ground and definitely don't miss Featuring X when they are playing near you.
And when they do, you know the drill; tell all of your friends and family, your friends' friends, your friends' family, your family's friends, far away neighbours, next door neighbour, tell your granny, tell the parish priest to give a shout out during his sermon and get the word out on the street.
Featuring X are fucking Fresh!