2023 live...Chapter 11: Boa Morte – National Sculpture Factory, Cork, June 16 2023

Cans of Kinnegar. Free with ticket. One.

Tubes of light. People in their 40s and 50s.

Quadrophonic speaker set up.

Band at the centre. Audience arranged around.

They arrive one by one with an orange fluorescent bulb each. Placed on the floor. Muted liquid light.

And begin.

Despite sitting about 10 yeards from Paul Ruxton his singing is barely audible. The band sounds lovely.

I get up and move to a different spot behind Maurice (shoes off, drums). The sound is perfect here. The sweet spot in this Quadrophenia.

Hilary Bow and Justin Grounds join the party. Hilary’s voice is sublime. A majestic counterpoint to the twin male baritones of Cormac and Paul.

Justin adds violin and clarinet to wonderful effect.

Something of the feel of an installation to the whole affair. Of leaving the space and walking back in at a different moment in the time-space-sound continuum. Particularly at the finish as Hilary and Justin are illuminated in a distant window, the rest of the band having taken their tubes and left the stage already.

I would have liked more Hilary. Very sparing.

And perhaps some encouragement to move through the space.

Minor quibbles.

Overall a memorable restatement of Boa Morte values.

Resilience. Perseverance. Ambience. Introspection. Resonance.

Swells and falls. With Maurice’s brilliantly skittish drumming. Bill’s sound washes.

Time stretching and compressing.

Ploughing their own furrow.

Meandering quite exquisitely to their own beat.