Escape to Ireland: Gràda

As the house lights blare back on and the door closes at the back of the stage, a chant of “We want more! We want more!” fills the room and the floor shakes in rhythm to the crowd’s stomping feet. Finally the stage door reopens and out steps the crowd heartthrob and upright bassist Laking. Looking about in confusion, he realizes his band mates did not follow him out, but just as he starts back toward the door the rest of the players emerge. The applause rises to a peak and finally dies out as the lights fade and the musicians pick up their instruments for an encore by one of Ireland’s best young bands.
     The band is Gràda and the musical genre is traditional Irish, but the Temple Bar Music Centre performance was an energetic mixture of Irish influenced melodies and contemporary jazz sounds played by an international array of young musicians. To call them a purely Irish traditional band would be unfair, as over 80 percent of their songs are originals. But while all of their originals sound quite Irish, the band has stepped out of the mold of many young traditional bands whose music is filled with countless covers and reworkings of older songs and has created something new.  
     This new sound is something that Denise and Jim Dare appreciate. The English couple while enjoying their last night in Ireland notices a sign outside the Music Centre announcing Gràda’s show. Out of mere curiosity, they decide to buy tickets, hoping for a fun performance of more than just the standard traditional music. 
     “We were in Galway listening to a lad play traditional Irish songs but we had to leave because he played an over-politicized song,” said Denise. The refrain, written long ago and now a part of the traditional Irish repertoire, apparently urged the English to “go home,” she said. The couple hoped Gràda’s music would go beyond the traditional, which Denise admits to growing bored with fairly easily, though she did like the Chieftains. When informed that two of the band members were from New Zealand, the couple said that was great news. “We like Irish music, but some international sounds can really add a lot to it,” said Jim.  
     While Gràda is made up of members from only two countries, their musical influences come from all over, and they themselves travel around the globe. The band was formed five years ago in Dublin and now tours all over Europe, the States, and as far as Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Of course the last two locations aren’t too far fetched considering two of the band members are Kiwis. The remaining four members are Irish, hailing from in and around Dublin and Galway. But wherever they’re from, all of them are equally affable and the fun they have onstage is readily apparent. 
     The band, having just returned from the U.S., makes this show their first performance back in their home town. Possibly because it is their home, the atmosphere in the Temple Bar Music Centre is laid back and comfortable, with band members talking both to friends in the audience and to fans they’d never met.  
     This level of interaction between the audience and the performers is more uncommon in most American concerts, where bands only show themselves on the stage and then disappear into tour buses or dressing rooms. Gràda, on the other hand, mingle with the audience, chat and drink beer during their mid-show break and after the concert. It’s apparent that these people are genuinely friendly and really love what they do. By the volume level of the cheers, the audience loves what they do just as much.
     Opening for Gràda are flute and whistle player, Alan Doherty’s, father and uncle. The two, while having “never played together before,” as Mr. Doherty announced, still do a great job warming up the audience with a few traditional Irish songs played on two acoustic guitars. It seems like each brought a couple of songs to play but neglected to tell the other the chords. For all but a single song written by the uncle and performed solo, one or the other has to keep watching his partner’s hands in order to play along. Because of this, it is obvious when mistakes are made. But even with the mistakes, and a mic stand that just won’t stay at mouth level and needs repeated mid-song adjustments, the two receive a lively round of applause for their efforts. Later on, when Doherty invites the two back on stage to add their voices to a song, he asks the sound technician jokingly to turn their mics off. Keeping up the friendly tease, Nicola Joyce, one of the band’s lead vocalists as well as bodhrán and fiddle player, asks the crowd to join in the singing and “drown them out.”
     After fumbling at the curtains at the back of the stage for a minute looking for an offstage exit, the brothers find their way out and the six members of Gràda emerged to enthusiastic applause and take up their instruments. The crowd quiets as Doherty begins a quick-paced melody on the flute with the fiddle adding an extra layer of texture underneath. The melody expands and begins building when the bodhrán’s beats are added, but when the rest of the band joins in, the energy in the room explodes. The drummer plays a driving rhythm on a big deep floor tom with the guitar and double bass adding to a fast-paced song that fills the room with excitement. Maintaining the energy level established in the first song seems like a bit of a high task, but the band’s clear love for the music and their sometimes virtuosic playing keeps the audience enthralled to the very end. 
     One member who seemed always to be pushing the limits of what his instruments could do was Doherty. Since only about a third of the songs performed had lyrics, the rest of the songs used a combination of his flute along with a fiddle to play the upper melodies while the other instruments created textured supporting rhythms. Whatever the tempo, the band seems to love sudden mid-song tempo changes, his playing was perfect, which was probably why he was asked to play on the movie soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings as the lead flute soloist. Since Doherty can’t sight-read musical notation, he was given an audio recording from which to learn his parts. A day before scheduled recording started he was informed that his entire part had been changed. He learned the new music that very night, performing it for the soundtrack the next day. 
     As for his performance at the show, one was never certain just what was being improvised and what was written. One song in particular featured just Doherty and the band’s fiddler playing on two whistles. The two played interweaving melodies that blended together one minute so that they couldn’t be told apart, and then took off in separate directions the next. While they swayed onstage, playing with closed eyes, the rest of the band sat off on the side, also swaying to the music, but with eyes open and watching and with smiles of appreciation for their band mates’ playing. 
     Of course the concert was not all fast-paced excitement; a good band knows to slow things down at some point for variety’s sake. A few songs, such as “River,” which Joyce describes as a “song of hope for The Troubles and Northern Ireland,” “Tread Softly,” which features the words of Oscar Wilde’s poem on the death of his sister “Requiescat,” as well as songs about New Zealand immigration and the sweethearts left at home when soldiers fought at Waterloo were gentle pieces full of emotion and care. 
     American study abroad student Rachel Day was one member of the audience who appreciates both the up-beat songs and the slower ones. “I liked how the music was light,” said Day. “You could just sit and listen to it for fun, but there were also songs with more meaning, like the political messages in the one about Northern Ireland.” 
     Another soft and slow song, performed on acoustic guitar by the double bassist Andy Laking, with only sparse backup by a fiddle, seems to win the heart of every young girl present. This attraction was playfully egged on a bit by Joyce when, after introducing Laking, she adds, “While we’re talking about Andy, he’s looking for a woman tonight.” In light hearted banter the audience is by this point used to, guitarist Gerry Paul comments, “It’s not just tonight, it’s every bloody night!” By the end of the show all sorts of indecent offers are yelled up to Laking by various girls
     One girl who applauds as loud as any but refrained from flinging herself at Laking, was another American student studying abroad named Sarah Szczerbiak. “I thought they were really good at making Irish music but adding international flavours,” she said. As a frequent concert goer and an actual music promoter in her home country, this is high praise. 
     Gràda’s performance is everything a concert should be. As people they are happy and easygoing, and as musicians they astonish with their skill and devotion to making Irish traditional music into something new and accessible to everyone. 
     As the applause fade and the band heads offstage for a mid-show break, most of the audience gets up to refill the pint glasses they’d already drained by the end of the second song. But outside the concert hall the path to the bar is blocked and the traffic jam is not a line to the bathrooms, it leads to a table laid out with Gràda’s three CD’s for sale. It seems many in the audience only needed to hear half of the band’s set list to know that Gràda’s music is something worth having around.